Mindhunter May Not Be Returning for a Season 3 After Show's Cast Is Released from Contracts
The future of Netflix’s crime-thriller series Mindhunter is in limbo.
On Wednesday, just five months after the release of season 2, it was revealed that the show has been put on “indefinite hold.”
Making fans all the more nervous, Mindhunter‘s lead cast members Jonathan Groff (Holden Ford), Holt McCallany (Bill Tench) and Anna Torv (Dr. Wendy Carr) have all been released from their contracts, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Mindhunter‘s executive producer David Fincher is “focused on directing his first Netflix film Mank and on producing the second season of Love, Death and Robots,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to EW Wednesday.
“He may revisit Mindhunter again in the future, but in the meantime, he felt it wasn’t fair to the actors to hold them from seeking other work while he was exploring new work of his own,” the statement concluded.
Netflix did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The show, which tells the story of real-life serial killers, follows main protagonists Holden Ford — who is loosely based on former FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas.
Douglas was one of the bureau’s first criminal profilers. Many of the stories from Mindhunter are taken straight from Douglas’ novel, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit.
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Douglas, 74, joined the FBI in 1970 at the age of 25 to work on violent crimes. He was a member of the SWAT team before he became an instructor in hostage negotiations and applied criminal psychology, according to the Powell Tribune.
Much like on the show, Douglas was teaching when he had the idea to interview real-life criminals in hopes of better understanding their motives and what led them to kill.
“I conducted the research, not from a rehabilitation perspective, but from an investigative perspective,” he told the Powell Tribune. “It was considered innovative, but to me, it was basic. If you want to learn about violent crime, talk to the experts: the criminals perpetrating rapes, arsons and serial homicides.”
This led Douglas to create the FBI’s Criminal Profiling Program.
Mindhunter season 1, which aired in October 2017, saw Ford interview a number of famous serial killers, including Edmund Kemper (Coed Killer), necrophile Jerry Brudos and mass murderer Richard Speck — all of whom Douglas also interviewed in real life.
During his first year on the project, Douglas interviewed 59 serial killers. By 1995, he received more than 1,000 requests for criminal profiles.
RELATED: Mindhunter Season 2 Teaser Offers Glimpses of Charles Manson and Son of Sam
He also interviewed David Berkowitz (also known as Son of Sam, who is featured in season 2), Ted Bundy, and even Charles Manson.
The series received rave reviews, scoring a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
