“I don’t know if it makes sense to continue,” Fincher told Variety during an interview for a cover story on the making of “Mank.” “It was an expensive show. It had a very passionate audience, but we never got the numbers that justified the cost.”

Plus, the second season was a nightmare to produce. Fincher fired the initial showrunner and tossed out eight scripts, as well as the “show bible,” which outlined all the details of “Mindhunter’s” on-screen universe. He ended up moving to Pittsburgh to oversee production on the season. “It was exhausting,” says Peter Mavromates, a co-producer on “Mindhunter” and “Mank.” “Even when he wasn’t directing an episode, he was overseeing it.”

“I certainly needed some time away,” says Fincher. “We had all hands on deck to finish [season two] and we didn’t have a ton of scripts and a ton of outlines and a bible standing by for season three. I’ll admit I was a little bit like ‘I don’t know that I’m ready to spend another two years in the crawl space.'”

Fincher is hoping that an indefinite hiatus might reignite his passion for the material and says he’d like the series to end with the FBI taking Dennis Rader, the real-life BTK Stranger played by Sonny Valicenti, into custody.

“At some point I’d love to revisit it,” says Fincher. “The hope was to get all the way up to the late 90’s, early 2000’s, hopefully get all the way up to people knocking on the door at Dennis Rader’s house.”