Fans know actor Wilson Bethel for his role as the villainous Bullseye in both the Netflix and Disney+ Daredevil series, but he once came very close to playing an entirely different MCU character: Captain America.
Bethel was up for the role of Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger back in 2010, a part that ultimately went to Chris Evans. At that time, Bethel’s biggest roles were in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill and the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
Bethel took to his Facebook account in March 2010 to break the news that he didn’t win the part, writing: “O Captain, My Captain… I am not He… Thanks for all of the love & support.”
I spoke with Bethel on Saturday following the Daredevil: Born Again panel at L.A. Comic Con where he recalled how “heartbreaking” yet ultimately “incredibly pivotal” not landing the role of Cap was for him as both a person and an actor.
“Well, it was ultimately heartbreaking. Yeah, I think it came at a juncture of my life and in my career where I really wasn’t sure that I had a path in this industry and didn’t really particularly take myself very seriously at the time,” Bethel told me.
“So what I would say is that getting very close to getting a role like that, I’ve screen tested for it multiple times, and met Kevin Feige, and did all the whole song and dance and sort of at that time felt like, ‘Wow, they’re taking me seriously for one of the biggest roles you could possibly imagine in Hollywood.’ It forced me to take myself seriously in a way that I certainly hadn’t up to that time.”
Bethel concluded, “So the fact that I didn’t get it… It’s interesting. There was the question that somebody asked on stage [at LACC] of pivotal moments in your career or whatever. For me, not getting that role was incredibly pivotal in so far as I didn’t get the role, but it actually transitioned me into taking this career very seriously in a way of taking myself seriously.”
Bethel confirmed that he auditioned in costume and proceeded to show me a photo on his phone of him from his Steve Rogers audition. He was wearing a bomber jacket, a collared shirt that was open to reveal the Captain America uniform underneath his street clothes.
Other actors who were up for the role of Cap at that time were John Krasinski and Sebastian Stan, both of whom ultimately joined the MCU as an alternate universe Reed Richards and Bucky Barnes, respectively.
Wilson Bethel is expected to reprise his role as Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter aka Bullseye for Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. Marvel Studios’ Brad Winderbaum recently confirmed to IGN that Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 begins filming in spring 2026.
