[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Untamed.]

Summary

The Netflix series ‘Untamed’ follows special agent Kyle Turner as he investigates a death in the wilderness.

The series delves into the park’s secrets and Kyle’s past, blending law enforcement with personal discovery.

Actor Wilson Bethel discusses the fun shoot, his character Shane Maguire, and potential for future seasons.

In the Netflix mystery thriller Untamed, Kyle Turner (Eric Bana), a special agent for the National Park Service whose job is to enforce human law in the vast wilderness of Yosemite, finds himself haunted by the brutal death of a young woman. Due to his rather prickly nature, no one wants to put up with Kyle long enough to work with him, so that duty falls on Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), the newest addition to the ranger squad who ultimately proves herself and her investigative skills to be useful. As the park’s dark secrets collide with Kyle’s own demons, his bonds with his ex-wife Jill (Rosemary DeWitt) and the chief park ranger Paul Souter (Sam Neill) will be tested. And then, there’s former army ranger Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel), who is the park’s Wildlife Management Officer. While he’s a loner who prefers to live by himself in the wilderness, he can also slip back into civilization and entertain a room full of folks at a bar. And he has a history with Kyle that hits a definite sore spot, which Shane is not afraid to remind him of. During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Bethel discussed what impressed him about the series, why the shoot was so fun, how he viewed Shane, how well he can adapt to different situations, his big confrontation with Kyle, and shooting the final episode and whether anything could have stopped Shane. He also talked about why he’s excited about Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, what made his time on Hart of Dixie so special, and his experience on All Rise. Collider: I love when a mystery like this can utilize its surroundings, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a TV series in this setting. I really appreciated how much a part of the series the location really is. WILSON BETHEL: Totally. It was one of the things that stood out to me from the beginning. The quality of the writing, all around, I was really impressed with, but the setting is so important. And for somebody like me, I’ve been hiking and backpacking and have spent as much time in nature as possible since I was a young kid. It was a no-brainer, in terms of, “This is incredible.”
Shooting ‘Untamed’ Surrounded By Such Beautiful Scenery Was a Dream for Wilson Bethel

“It was the most fun shoot.”

Image via Netflix

What was it like to actually incorporate the environment into this? What are the plus sides of getting to do that, and are there challenges in doing that? BETHEL: There are challenges, but to me, a challenge isn’t necessarily a minus. To me, it was all plus sides. If you talk to the grips or somebody who’s hauling a bunch of lighting gear up a narrow dirt path and slipping in mud, they might have had a different experience with that. But from my perspective, someone who’s spent hundreds of hours on windowless soundstages on backlots in Burbank and wherever else, to be outside in some of the most beautiful, extraordinary nature on the planet and getting paid to do it and getting to do some really fun acting work there, it was just a total dream. It was the most fun shoot. I just loved it. How was this character presented and described to you? How did you view him? How did you approach shaping him? Did you see him as a morally gray character? Is he someone who’s made bad choices? BETHEL: It’s funny that you phrase it that way. Obviously, he’s morally gray from the outside, from your perspective. What I think is fascinating about him is that, from his own perspective, he is so morally clear. That is really, truly the guiding principle of this character. He has such an ironclad view in his own mind, of what is and what is not right, that it can allow him to do something like murder somebody with no compunction because he knows in his heart it’s not about him being a psychopath. It’s not about him loving to kill people. I’ve played those guys too. It’s about him knowing in his bones, for himself, that this is the right thing. It was fascinating because then you start thinking about, “If that is the way you feel, and that’s the way you walk through life, what goes hand in hand with that?” He also has this extremely deep-seated confidence and sense of self, because he just feels righteous. I think he feels like he lives a righteous life. He lives simply in a lot of ways. He was fascinating. He’s a fascinating character to me. I had a lot of fun just thinking about and exploring what his mindspace looked like.

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He’s such an interesting character to go on the journey with because, from the moment we meet him, we don’t know what to make of him. We’re only getting little bits of his story as the series goes on. We see him by himself out in the wilderness, but then we also see him at a bar with Kyle, and in a group of people having a conversation. He seems like he’s not somebody who has a conscience that weighs on him. BETHEL: Definitely not. That was one of the interesting things that I thought about. When we first meet him, and there are even a couple other little scenes showing him fully by himself in nature, that’s an essential part of who this guy is. He’s a real lone wolf and somebody who really is very comfortable just being by himself for long stretches out in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, I think that he gets off on periodically sticking his toe back in the water of civilization. It’s not necessarily something that he needs, but there’s an element of him having his cake and eating it too. He prizes this view he has of himself as a survivalist who can live with nothing, but at the same time, occasionally avails himself of some of the perks of civilization whether that’s booze or women or enthralling company with stories around a campfire. He’s an interesting character.
Wilson Bethel Had a Lot of Fun Shooting His ‘Untamed’ Confrontation with Eric Bana

“These are both really extremely strong, extremely capable, unpredictable and potentially violent men.”

Image via Netflix

The more that Kyle figures out what’s going on, the more we get that he’s clearly suspicious of Shane, and all of that culminates with Shane getting punched in the face. What was it like to shoot that scene? Is a confrontation like that fun to shoot? BETHEL: Very fun. It was extra fun because we were shooting at the hotel that we were staying at in Whistler, in British Columbia. My wife and my daughter were staying in the room, literally right above where we were shooting that scene. There was this surreal thing where my wife was on the balcony, poking her head out, watching me just get punched repeatedly in the face. My daughter might have still been awake at that time. It was a very surreal moment. But those scenes are great. Obviously, it’s a lot of fun to do it opposite a great actor like Eric [Bana]. He brought so much to his role. One of the things that’s really fun about the dynamic between them and the tension between them is that these are both really extremely strong, extremely capable, unpredictable and potentially violent men. When you get a scene like that, it could go a bunch of ways. And it doesn’t stop in that moment. When Shane makes the dig about Kyle’s wife and his drinking, what do you think he thought would happen, as a reaction? Do you think he was surprised that Kyle pulled his gun and stuck it under his chin? BETHEL: I don’t think he was surprised that Kyle pulled the gun. I think he knew that Kyle wouldn’t shoot the gun. Shane is a very intelligent guy. He’s intelligent about people and he knows their limitations. One of the reasons why he can antagonize Kyle, verbally and otherwise, in the way that he does, is because he knows what Kyle’s limits are, even if maybe, in a given moment, Kyle doesn’t know what his limits are. I think Shane feels safe in a weird way. He can take a punch in the face. That’s not going to kill him. He knows the gun isn’t going to be shot.

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Is it surreal to be in a moment like that? Obviously, it’s fake and you’re acting, but is it still weird to be in a situation like that? BETHEL: Yeah. As an actor, those moments are great because it’s fucking intense to get a gun put under your chin. It’s a pretty good way to get dropped into a moment and feel the reality and gravity of it. It was surreal, for sure, but it definitely ratchets up the stakes of a scene pretty quickly. In the final episode, Shane is essentially hunting down Kyle, and in the process of doing so, we hear a gunshot and we see Kyle’s horse on the ground. Do you feel like that really took away any chance of sympathy or survival for your character? BETHEL: I don’t think we spend a lot of time trying to garner sympathy for Shane Maguire, so I don’t know that any sympathy was lost in that moment.
Shane Maguire Will Not Be Returning for Any Possible Future Seasons of ‘Untamed’

“We realize he’s just not coming back, period.”

Image via Netflix

But there really is no chance of coming back from a moment like that. BETHEL: Well, the good news is, pretty quickly after that, we realize he’s just not coming back, period. There’s a pretty solid case to be made that there will be no Shane Maguire in future episodes of Untamed. He’s got his own moral code. For him, maybe he doesn’t like the idea, in theory, of shooting a horse, but that’s just a thing that had to be done. Sorry, horse. When you got to that moment in the script, were you like, “Did you have to throw the horse in before you got rid of this guy?” BETHEL: I actually had some conversations with that horse. Originally, in the immediate aftermath of me having shot the horse, I had to go up to the horse afterwards. I had a relationship with that horse. We talked about it. We’re good. We’re on okay terms.

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What was it like to do all the running around and aiming and shooting the long-range gun? Do you have to do any specific training to feel very comfortable using it in that way? BETHEL: I have had experience, in past work that I’ve done, working with weapons. They have people on set to help guide you, if you need specific direction. A lot of it is just relying on your instincts with how to move and how to carry yourself in those conditions. All three of those things help. Hopefully, for people who are big weapons aficionados, it plays accurate to the character. Do you feel like Shane would have killed Kyle if Naya hadn’t killed him first? Would he have been totally okay with doing that and going back to his life? BETHEL: A hundred percent. I think it’s safe to say that trigger was not going to not get pulled.
Playing Dex in ‘Daredevil’ Has Meant So Much to Wilson Bethel

“It’s just been one of the great surprising gifts of my entire career.”

Image via Disney+

It’s an unusual experience for an actor to play a character in one incarnation on one streaming service, and then to get to revisit it again in a new place, years later, which you’ve gotten to do with Daredevil. What has that been like to get to do? You must have thought you were done after that first time around, so how have you found the experience of coming back to that character? That’s an experience that actors don’t get to have very often. BETHEL: No, and especially not with a show that meant so much to me. In theory, you could get that call about a show that you never really cared that much about in the first place. As it happened, getting that call and getting the opportunity to return to that show and return to that character, who I just absolutely adore playing and is so much fun to play, it’s just been one of the great surprising gifts of my entire career. We just finished shooting the second season. I get to do so much fun, insane stuff in this new season. I’m so excited for fans to see it. I hope that we have several, if not many more, years of wonderful story in store for Bullseye and for the whole Daredevil crew. It’s such a great, lovely group of people on that show, in front of and behind the camera. I just feel honored to be part of it. I was already scared of you with the first season. Should I be even more scared of you with Season 2? BETHEL: The Dex of Season 2 is a new Dex that we haven’t really seen yet. I’m very excited for people to see it and I’m curious to see how they weigh in on it. There are some elements of him in this season, some sides of his personality, that we haven’t seen yet and I’m thrilled for people to get to see it.

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The first time I remember being aware of you and your work was Hart of Dixie, and you did nearly 80 episodes of that series as that character? Does that experience still hold a special place in your heart? What did you learn from spending so much time playing one character on a TV series like that? BETHEL: I feel like every job I’ve ever had has shaped me in some way. Even a lot of small jobs have shaped me in one way or another. I really, truly hold just about all of them – except for maybe one or two stinkers that I don’t feel like that about – very dearly, in terms of the larger experience of my career, my creative life, and the things that have shaped me as an actor and given me confidence. Hart of Dixie was a huge part of that. It was the first big role that I had ever had. I’d had a handful of smaller supporting roles. It was about just getting more reps of acting on screen and more scene work. It was also the first time I had gotten to play a character that I just fell in love with. I got to feel what it is to really connect with a character that you’re playing. That’s one of the joys about getting to do a character over a period of time. You really feel like that person is part of you. I literally almost cannot imagine a better character to live with for four years than Wade. He was just so much fun and such a joy to have as part of my life. Especially during the filming of Hart of Dixie, over those years, I would just drop into that southern accent, the Alabama accent, all the time in my regular life because I had so much fun being Wade. I would unconsciously channel it to juice up my normal life sometimes. Was that the first time you realized how hard it could be to leave a character and a job behind? How hard was that? No matter how many seasons you have, does it just feel like it’s never enough when you’re in it? BETHEL: Yes and no. I don’t think I’ll ever be a 10 seasons of one TV show actor. I don’t know. I don’t foresee that for myself anytime soon. Maybe at some point that would make sense to me. I’m too antsy to do new things and have new experiences. The four seasons that we did of that show was probably perfect for me, especially in hindsight. That said, it was such an emotional thing. I vividly remember shooting the last episode of that show and how bittersweet it was. What a wonderful cast we had on that show, and creative team and crew. It was very hard to say goodbye to that show and those people. I have also maintained a lot of those relationships over the years. It’s not like people just disappear. I still get to meet up with those people and reminisce on good times. That feels great, too. Was All Rise a similar experience to Hart of Dixie? You did Daredevil in between, but that definitely feels like it would have been a bit different of an experience. All Rise feels like it was a bit closer to what Hart of Dixie was. How did that experience compare? Did it feel similar, in the sense of working with a really great ensemble? BETHEL: A hundred percent. I’ve been so blessed, in this career that I’ve had, to just work with great people, people that I genuinely like, people that I genuinely am friends with, who are lovely and not egocentric. It’s been so far from the clichéd Hollywood megalomaniacal losers, and just great, friendly, kind people. All Rise was that also. I was at a different stage in my life, and it was a different stage in a lot of the other actors’ lives. When we were doing Hart of Dixie, a lot of people were in their late 20s and early 30s. With All Rise, a lot of people were in their mid and late 30s. A lot of us were having kids while we were shooting that show. It can be a profound experience because you’re spending a lot of time with these people that you really like, and you’re all going through life together, as well as making this show. It’s a very bonding experience. Yeah, I had an incredible time on that show as well. Insofar as there are certain elements of network TV that are similar, there were some elements of that show in terms of the feel and the set vibe that were similar to Hart of Dixie.

Untamed

Release Date

July 17, 2025

Network

Netflix

Untamed is available to stream on Netflix. Check out the trailer: