After being introduced as the secondary antagonist of the third season of Netflix's Daredevil, Wilson Bethel is set to return as the highly unstable Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, aka Bullseye, in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again Disney+ revival.
Bullseye is a fairly well-known Marvel Comics villain, but, as you may already be aware, Bethel came very close to landing the role of a very different much bigger character back in the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
During a recent Fan Expo event (via Screen Rant), Bethel recalled narrowly losing the part of Steve Rogers in Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger to Chris Evans.
"The hardest hit I took was, I came very close to being cast as Captain America. I went through multiple rounds of screen testing, and the suit felt incredible. Yeah [when asked if he has pictures]. There were all these things that were happening that made me feel like I was getting the part. And then I remember my agent calling me one day, and they're like, 'No, actually, they offered it to Chris Evans' or whatever."
It might be difficult to imagine anyone else portraying Rogers now, but Evans actually declined Marvel's offer initially, so several other actors were considered before he agreed to take another meeting.
Bethel has previously spoken about how close he came to playing Captain America, and admitted that losing the opportunity did hit him hard.
"To be perfectly honest, that was one of the hardest moments in my professional career. And it spun me out for a while to be honest with you. But I'm also a firm believer that things happen as they're supposed to, and obviously, Chris did an incredible job in that role. And my life, while it hasn't brought me to lead the Avengers, has been really rich and rewarding in other ways. So, I can't spend too much time lamenting it. And honestly, just the fact that things have kind of come full circle in a way, and I still get to be a dude in a suit, is pretty exciting."
Set photos have confirmed that Bethel will get to don an actual Bullseye costume in Born Again - even if it doesn't really resemble the outfit the character wears in the comics.
Joining Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk will be Jon Bernthal, who will also reprise his role as Frank Castle/The Punisher.
Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva, Nikki M. James, Michael Gaston, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Hunter Doohan are also on board in supporting roles.
The Punisher writer Dario Scardapane is on aboard as the project's new showrunner.
Specific plot details are still under wraps, but we know that Born Again will see Matt Murdock/Daredevil face-off against his old nemesis the Kingpin, who we last saw rushing back to New York in the season finale of Echo. Fisk will likely be either running for mayor of NYC or already appointed to the position when the story gets underway.