True crime fans tuning into Monster: The Ed Gein Story were in for a fun surprise when the show found a way to connect back to beloved series Mindhunter.
During the final episode, which premiered on Friday, October 3, Monster introduced their version of Ted Bundy (John T. O’Brien) as he was being hunted down by FBI agents John Douglas (Sean Carrigan) and Robert Ressler (Caleb Ruminer).
Their search took them to Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson) a.k.a the Shoe Fetish Slayer, who wasn’t able to give them the information they were looking for but directed them to Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam).
“We wanted to underline the last thing tonally that through Silence of the Lambs, he really influenced Mindhunter as well,” showrunner Ian Brennan told Tudum on Friday. “That would be a fun way to put a cap on it, to use this other filmic vocabulary and then talk about the ways that he was part of those early days of FBI profiling.”
This led to a sit-down between Gein and three agents — including Ann Burgess (Megan Ketch) — who traveled the country interviewing prolific serial killers as research to understand their state of mind. The scene might have felt familiar for Netflix viewers who tuned into the short-lived series Mindhunter.
Based on the 1995 book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, Mindhunter followed the founding of the Behavioral Science Unit in the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the late ’70s, which was the beginning of criminal profiling. (In addition to Monster featuring the parallel to a real team of agents, they also brought back Anderson, 48, as Brudos after he originated the role in Mindhunter.)
Mindhunter, which starred Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany and Anna Torv, ran for two seasons but was ultimately put on indefinite hold due to executive producer David Fincher looking to pursue other projects. After hinting at plans to revisit the series in the future, Fincher confirmed in 2023 that the show was officially over.
More recently, McCallany, 62, teased a possible third season on Netflix.
“I had a meeting with David Fincher in his office a few months ago, and he said to me that there is a chance that it may come back as three two-hour movies, but I think it’s just a chance,” he told CBR in June. “I know there are writers that are working, but you know, David has to be happy with scripts.”
McCallany continued: “I recently wrote a script that he was kind enough to give me notes on. I was in script revisions with David for two and a half years.. but [he] was very meticulous, which is why I think he’s the best director in Hollywood. He gave me a little bit of hope when I had that meeting with him, but the sun, the moon and the stars would all have to align.”
Groff, for his part, also showed support for a continuation in the past.
“To me, Mindhunter is Fincher. The whole experience for me was the honor and privilege of getting to work with him,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “This was the main draw for me. The minute he says he wants to do another one, I’ll be there in a second. But I trust his vision and his instincts, and so I leave it always in his hands, as ever.”
Monster and Mindhunter are both currently streaming on Netflix.
