No more spirit hunter, for real this time. It became increasingly clear that the David Fincher series would not return after the premiere of the second season on netflix in 2019, but there has always been a kernel of hope among fans that the author would return to his serial killer playground. Even when the cast was released from their contracts in 2020, a rep for the streamer claimed that Fincher “may revisit spirit hunter again in the future. Yet in a new interview, Fincher points to Netflix’s infamous business model is the reason there won’t be a third season.
“I am very proud of the first two seasons. But it’s a very expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we didn’t attract enough audience to justify such an investment. [for Season 3]“, he told the French outlet The Sunday Journal (via Forbes). “I don’t blame them, they took risks to get the show off the ground, empowered me to do Lack the way I wanted to do it, and they allowed me to venture new paths with The killer. It is a blessing to be able to work with people capable of daring. The day our desires are no longer the same, we have to be honest about the separation.”
Previously, Fincher shared that burnout was another big reason for to move back on spirit hunter. “We did the first season of spirit hunter without a showrunner, with me pinching week after week,” he said Vulture in 2020. “We started getting scripts for the second season, and I ended up looking at what was written and decided I didn’t like any of it. So we threw it away and started over.
He continued, “I brought in Courtenay Miles, a DA I’d worked with who wanted to write, and she ended up co-hosting spirit hunter. But it’s a 90-hour work week. It absorbs everything in your life. When I was done, I was pretty exhausted and said, “I don’t know if I have it in me right now to crack season three.”
But even then he was outspoken on the matter of money, acknowledging that “for the audience he had, it was a expensive show.” Maybe Netflix would have given the green light if it could cut creative costs, “but honestly, I don’t think we’ll be able to do that for less than season two,” he said. “And on some level, you have to be realistic that dollars have to equal eyeballs.” RIP again, spirit hunter.