Even before the release of the first season of David Fincher’s Netflix thriller Mindhunter, it had been renewed for a second season. Continuing the story of the fictional ’70s FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) – a duo interviewing serial killers to try and suss out how they think – season two is on its way. Here’s what we know so far.
Recent updates
- The official release date for season 2 has now been released
- Director David Fincher reveals more about what we can expect from new episodes
- Damon Herriman cast as Charles Manson in upcoming episodes
What’s the release date for Mindhunter season 2?
In late April, executive producer Charlize Theron appeared to let slip that season 2 of Mindhunter will be coming to Netflix in August. Watch her interview on Howard Stern on SiriusXM below.
Charlize Theron reveals an August 2019 release date for #Mindhunter Season 2 on SiriusXM's “Howard Stern Show" on Monday, April 29th. pic.twitter.com/dfzS9TVoQr
— Mindhunter News (@MindhunterNews) April 30, 2019
Now, director David Fincher has revealed the new season will premiere on Netflix on August 16. The Gone Girl director made the announcement during an interview with Elvis Mitchell on KCRW’s “The Treatment” podcast.
How many episodes will there be?
Netflix announced that there will only be 8 episodes in this series, two fewer than Season 1.
Is there a trailer?
Yes! See it below, including the first glance of Damon Herriman as the infamous Charles Manson.
We need to talk to more subjects. pic.twitter.com/7pTnxAhM0G
— MINDHUNTER (@MINDHUNTER_) November 30, 2017
What’s going to happen in season 2?
David Fincher recently revealed to Billboard: “Next year we’re looking at the Atlanta child murders.” The interview was about the show’s soundtrack, so he says this will have an impact on the music (“we’ll have a lot more African-American music”) but it also tells us a lot about when and where season 2 is going to be set. The Atlanta child murders took place between 1979 and 1981, and resulted in the deaths of 28 children, teens and adults, all of whom were African-American. The man eventually charged with two of the adults’ murders was the 23-year-old Wayne Williams, but the remainder became cold cases and were never solved.
Fans are speculating that another plotline of season 2 will include the BTK Killer, whom season 1 hinted at in various unexplained scenes: between 1974 and 1991 he killed 10 people in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
It’s also been confirmed that the show will include the Manson Murders in the new episodes, and that Damon Herriman will be playing Charles Manson in the episodes. He is also set to play Manson in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.
During an interview with Elvis Mitchell on KCRW’s ‘The Treatment’ podcast. Fincher said that the Atlanta Child Murders, Charles Manson, and Son of Sam would all be important to new episodes of the show. He also confirmed that The Assassination of Jesse James director Andrew Dominik was involved in season 2.
“I got a call from Andrew Dominik who had seen the first season and said, ‘I’d really like to do something with Season 2. We brought him in. When God gives you a really great idea, take it. When we first sat down he said, ‘What is it about this world that seems so American? There is something going on here.’ I said the show is about narcissism. The show is about needing to be seen.”
He also gave some more details about the atmosphere of season 2. “In the 70s, post-Manson, post-Son of Sam, post-Zodiac, there really was, I don’t think you can say it was an epidemic, but there was definitely the feeling that the notion of this has gotten away from us.
“There was this transition. I remember it happening with Son of Sam. When I left the Bay Area in the mid 1970s and our parents moved to Oregon, you go 300 miles north and nobody talked about Zodiac. It had been this festering thing that had never been brought to any kind of closure but no one cared about it. Then Son of Sam came, and it was Newsweek and Time, the cover.”
Fincher continued, “I remember conversations at the family dinner table about Son of Sam. We didn’t have those conversations about Zodiac, granted I was in the second grade and it was probably too distressing to talk about this stuff. But when I was a teenager these conversations were had out in the open.”
Fincher also revealed that the Atlanta Child Murders would be a crucial storyline in season 2. “You could probably do three seasons on the Atlanta Child Murders. It’s a huge and sweeping and tragic story. We couldn’t do it justice in the background of our nine hours.
“…[The FBI] are the last guys in, they’re trying to help out something that has its own momentum and politics. It’s a divided battlefield. They’re coming in to throw this federal umbrella over everything to make everyone feel OK about sharing information.”
Any new cast members?
There haven’t been any announcements yet, but the show is expected to cast someone to play the 23-year-old Wayne Williams, the serial killer charged with 1979’s Atlanta Murders.
How many seasons will Mindhunter run for?
As long as everything goes to plan, there’ll be five. In a recent Mindhunter interview, Holt McCallany (Bill Tench) told NME that Joe Penhall has written a 70-page document with “five seasons’ worth of scripts”, which he says “gives an overview of what the journey of the central characters will be.”