DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN’s Bullseye Actor Gets Honest About Season 1 Letdown: “I Wanted a F---ing Banger”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps moving forward, and right now a lot of eyes are locked on Daredevil: Born Again as it continues to roll out new episodes on Disney+.
Season 2 has been delivering the goods so far, bringing back that gritty energy fans missed. But while things are clicking now, one of the show’s key players is opening up about why the first season didn’t quite hit the same level.
Wilson Bethel, who reprises his role as the deadly Bullseye, didn’t hold back when talking about his experience with Season 1. Fans who followed the Netflix Marvel era had high expectations when these characters finally made their MCU return, and Bethel clearly felt that pressure too.
Speaking with Brandon Davis, Bethel shared: “My only frustration -- and, you know, I don't think I'm like, setting the world on fire with this comment, but like -- my only frustration is that I think I have so much respect for what this show is and has been.
“I think the fans are so deeply invested, have so much respect for the show, hold it to such as high standard, that it was frustrating for me, a little bit, that we had to settle at all in coming back with that first season.”
That’s a pretty candid take, especially from someone still heavily involved in the series. Bethel’s comment about the show “settling” hits harder when you consider everything that happened during production.
The original plan for an 18-episode run got reshaped into two separate seasons, and there were creative shifts midstream that likely impacted the final product.
Even with those hurdles, Season 1 still had its moments. But according to Bethel, it didn’t quite deliver the kind of return fans had been waiting years for. And he didn’t shy away from saying exactly what he hoped it would have been.
“Like I wanted it to be out the gate the quality of this season, Season 2, Born Again. That's what I wanted for the first season. People [have] been waiting, whatever six, seven years.
“Like, how different does it hit if out the gate after that, wait, you get like, a fucking banger season of TV, and we got some good moments. But it was not like, it was not just that fucking, 'Oh shit, Daredevil's back.' It was like, 'Daredevil's back. [mumbles]'“
When a show carries this much history and fan investment, expectations are through the roof, and while Season 1 didn’t completely miss, it could’ve been so much better than the patchwork of things it ended up being.
With Season 2 correcting course, the tone feels sharper, the storytelling more confident, and characters like Bullseye are getting the kind of material that lets them really shine.