Born Again’s Wilson Bethel Teases Bullseye’s Bigger MCU Future After That Finale Twist

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2 finale

As Daredevil: Born Again reaches its Season 2 finale Tuesday night on Disney+, everything is unraveling at once in the tense hour of “The Southern Cross.” Our titular hero, Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox, exposes himself as Matt Murdock to stop Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). But it’s that courthouse sequence that turns the sophomore season into a real battleground — and bloodbath. Just as Fisk loses control of the narrative he’s been carefully building all season, Wilson Bethel’s sharp-shooting Bullseye shows up. Not so much as part of the plan, but as the thing that completely breaks things apart.

That unpredictability carries into the episode’s final moments, too. In an interview with Collider, Bethel hints that ol’ Poindexter’s story is far from over, especially once Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) enters the picture. “Bullseye at the end of the day, in a lot of the comics, is just a straight-up hitman for hire,” he says, adding that “I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility for a government to be the one that comes up with the money to hire him.”

It’s that last scene of Dex with Charles on the plane that reframes Daredevil’s nemesis as not exactly rescued or redeemed, but possibly stepping into something bigger and more dangerous. Because, as Bethel points out, his character is still “operating for himself and through his own very specific lens.” Whatever deal he’s making now, it’s likely on his terms since that finale twist feels less like an ending and more like a handoff that leaves Matt behind bars, Fisk in exile to a lonely island, and Bullseye heading somewhere no one can really control.

Bethel Brought Back One Tiny Bullseye Habit From Netflix’s Daredevil

Dex’s coin trick was Bethel’s way of showing how Bullseye constantly sharpens his killer instincts.

Image via Disney+

Before we talk about the finale for Daredevil: Born Again, what’s a small detail about Bullseye this season compared to the Netflix seasons that fans might not notice, but you really love that you brought to the screen?

BETHEL: That’s a cool question. Well, one thing I brought back from the Netflix show, it’s a small detail, is this thing that Bullseye does with the coin in his fingers. He does it at the diner. He does it, I think, in another scene as well. That was something I started back in the Netflix days. It was this idea I had that Bullseye is somebody whose hands are so essential to who he is as a killer that he is always sort of honing his dexterity. So that’s just a little thing that he does to keep his hands fresh.

I love bringing stuff like that in. There are a lot of little things. There’s one scene that got cut, unfortunately, that I loved that was a sort of throwback, and there’s still a piece of it in the show, but now you won’t quite catch it, maybe. In Episode 4, when Daredevil comes to Dex’s apartment, and they have the fight in the apartment, Dex has got a Discman on, and one of the original ideas there was that he’s got the old tapes that he used to listen to, back in the day, in the Netflix show. But anyway, those are a couple of little details.

Those are great. So, when Bullseye tells Matt he killed Foggy, there’s no remorse in that conversation. It’s just sort of a fact. Is that how he processes it, or does he understand the weight of what he’s done to somebody who really cared about someone else?

BETHEL: That’s a great question. Empathy is not really part of Dex’s skill set, so he might be able to understand it on an intellectual level to a degree. What’s fascinating to me about that conversation is that the emotion that’s coming from Dex is about his own struggle and has really nothing to do with what poor Matt’s been through with the death of his best friend. That’s one of the confounding, interesting, and really fun-to-play elements of this character is that he is so in his own world. What’s happening in other people’s hearts and other people’s minds just doesn’t even register on his radar. He’s operating for himself and through his own very specific lens. Of course, that can mean that his perception of a larger reality is extremely skewed, which, again, is what makes it fun.

Bethel Breaks Down Bullseye and Karen’s Haunting Reunion

Bullseye’s first words to Karen matter because longtime Daredevil fans know exactly what those two words mean.

Image via Disney

For sure. You’ve had some great scenes this season, also, with Deborah [Ann Woll]. I thought that was a great scene, the moment you guys are sharing. There’s this push and pull of her being so upset and angry, and she just wants to kill him.

BETHEL: Literal push and pull! She pushes me away, pulling me in with a gun to my head.

What was that like sharing that scene with her? It is so emotionally charged.

BETHEL: Dude, for starters, Deborah is obviously a powerhouse in this show. I think that in so many ways, she’s sort of the emotional heart of this whole show, and when she gets to really show that off, and when her character gets dropped into those moments where she’s feeling so much, I think it just draws the whole narrative, in an amazing way, together.

I loved getting to do that scene, partly because the emotional stakes are obviously so high, and I think she carries that so well, and that these two characters, again, just speaking on what we mentioned before in the other part of the interview, there’s so much history now between these characters. It really makes it fun, man. So when Dex, in that scene, wakes up out of his little semi-coma or whatever, then his first words are, “Hello, Karen,” anybody who’s been watching the show since the Netflix days knows that those two words mean a lot.

It was very haunting — almost sort of chilling in that sense. Throughout the season, Matt refuses to let Bullseye kill Fisk because it would make Fisk a martyr. Knowing what the politics behind all that is, do you think Bullseye understands that kind of long-term thinking at all, or is he sort of like in his own element right now?

BETHEL: To my earlier point, I don’t think it really concerns him. He has his own point of view, and he’s so firm. Nothing you’re going to say is going to talk him out of his point of view. So, yeah, he’s not logical.

That’s such an interesting thing about him. I used to wonder, in past seasons, obviously, maybe he’s got a little bit of a heart there. Maybe he does care more than you see. But then you see the opposite.

BETHEL: Just to be clear, the two things are not mutually exclusive. You know what I mean? Like, this is a mentally ill person. So, it’s not that he doesn’t have a heart. It’s that his brain is so tremendously clouded and afflicted that he can’t see things clearly a lot of the time. But I think that’s one of the interesting things is that, I think there are moments from when we first started doing this series where Dex’s heart actually is visible in different ways, and part of that is what has allowed people to respond to this character as much as they have and why he, to most people’s eyes, does not register as a traditional villain in a lot of ways. Because there’s a lot going on under the surface that you can’t necessarily fault him for, and that he is very clearly human. He’s not just like some robot killer.

Also, with Bullseye cutting through Fisk’s fake Bullseye team, taking over the sniper position, that felt like he was reclaiming his identity in real time. Did you approach that as him correcting an imitation, or like, “This is who I am. Don’t mess with me?”

BETHEL: It’s funny, I don’t think that I actually thought of it that way when I was shooting it, but I actually like your version. So now, if anyone else asks, that is Bullseye reclaiming himself. Hell yeah, girl! Thank you for that.

Bullseye’s Plane Scene May Point to His Next Shady Mission

The finale with Mr. Charles suggests Dex may be recruited into something bigger, not simply rescued.

Image via Prime Video

[Laughs] You’re totally welcome. So by the end, when Bullseye is on the plane with Mr. Charles, Matthew Lillard — great to see him on the show — it does feel like he’s being absorbed into something bigger. I know you can’t say too much, but there is that Easter egg of Mr. Charles speaking to Allegra, which we assume is her. Do you want the audience to feel like he’s being rescued or recruited, or just reassigned somewhere?

BETHEL: Yeah, I think there’s a very fair assumption to make, and I certainly won’t push back on it. We know from the comics, too, that at various moments, Bullseye has worked for the government in all kinds of shady capacities. Bullseye at the end of the day, in a lot of the comics, is just a straight-up hitman for hire, and so, I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility for a government to be the one that comes up with the money to hire him.

I know you said that Bullseye has this trajectory where he doesn’t really see anything else outside what he wants, but going from working under Vanessa to potentially working with Mr. Charles, does that feel like progress for him or just like the same cycle under a different boss?

BETHEL: I think it all depends on the terms of the arrangement. How much freedom does a guy like that get to be who he is? I think that’s what it comes down to. With Vanessa and with Fisk, in their separate arrangements, whether from Season 3 of the Netflix show or Season 1 of Born Again, those were both versions of Dex operating from a weakened position of leverage. With Fisk, he was being actively manipulated. With Vanessa, he had to make that deal essentially to get out of an institution; otherwise, he was going to die there, probably, and that is how he got his mind back. But I like to think that if he’s making any kind of bargains or deals about what his future holds at this point, he’s doing it from a position of power, and I think that gives him a lot more freedom.

Bethel Knows Exactly Which Marvel Heroes Bullseye Should Fight Next

Bethel hopes Tom Holland makes another Spider-Man movie — and that Bullseye gets to be part of it.

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

I know you can’t get into specifics, but what does that ending suggest to you about his future in the MCU, and is there a character you’d love to see him go up against?

BETHEL: Man, look, one of the things that I think is amazing about this character is I think he would operate so well in so many different scenarios and contexts. Obviously, he’s not a character that would function particularly well against, like, Galactus, but I think it would be a hell of a lot of fun to see him up against somebody like Spider-Man. It’d be a hell of a lot of fun to see him against somebody like Hawkeye. It would be a hell of a lot of fun to see him go up against Punisher. So I think there are a lot of different avenues that this character could continue to be used in, and I sure hope I get to do a lot more of it.

I know that Spider-Man’s coming up, and the Punisher is in it, so who’s to say?

BETHEL: Let’s just hope that Tom Holland decides to do another one, and I can be a part of that one.

Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+.

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Release Date

March 4, 2025

Network

Disney+

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Showrunner

Dario Scardapane

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Directors

Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, David Boyd, Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Writers

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Jesse Wigutow, Jill Blankenship, Thomas Wong, David Feige, Grainne Godfree

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