Fan-favorite James D’Arcy talks to Hypable about the loves and lies of Edwin Jarvis – and what the future holds for Agent Carter.

Peggy discovered that Jarvis was keeping secrets from her this week. How will Jarvis approach trying to mend their fences?

You know, I think he’s in an extremely tough spot. Because obviously his loyalties lie with Howard, and he’s explained to a certain extent why that is the case. What I don’t think he had really accounted for was quite how loyal he would feel towards Peggy [and] how quickly. So he’s in a tricky situation because he’s obviously been party to what’s been going on, and yet he feels deeply for Peggy.

That is something that is explored right at the top of this next episode, which is that he and Peggy have a conversation which in fact gets slightly out of hand. [It] becomes the spur, inadvertently, for her to go off and do what happens next, which is, you know, she stands up for herself at work.

Jarvis let out some of his frustration with Howard last week as well. Will there be further conflict between butler and boss?

Well, ahh… there is definitely tension with Howard, and you know…[laughs] there’s always a little tension with Howard! You know, I’m not entirely sure exactly that Jarvis approves much of Howard’s life, to be honest! So there’s always a little tension between them. How much does Howard care what Jarvis thinks? That is up for debate.

We’ve recently learned what seems to be Jarvis’s darkest secret. Can we expect more secrets to see the light of day?

You know… yes, of course, there’s going to be more secrets from everybody that are revealed. But what I think increasingly happens in our remaining for episodes is that we are – and by we, I mean the audience – are really thrust into the present moment. Because things become very, very immediate quite quickly. And there really is less time for lengthy discussions about things that happened in the past because what’s happening right now could be the end of the world… I don’t necessarily mean “the world,” the world, but the end of our little world.

And then the stakes just raise, and raise, and raise, and raise to the end, which is, you know, very, very high stakes. So yes, I think more secrets – definitely more secrets. But they come out in a very organic way, which is to do with what is happening right this minute.

Jarvis’s tick of tugging his ear while lying became a major plot point in the most recent episode. Some fans theorize that this was actually an attempt to tell Peggy the truth. What do you think?

Oh, that’s interesting! That’s interesting that people have seen it both ways. I thought about that as well, and the truth is I wanted to leave it ambiguous. I think that’s probably a decision that people can make on their own, and maybe there will be, you know, a moment where that clarifies itself.

Fans have also latched on to Mrs. Jarvis. Can you tell us if we’ll see any more of Anna beyond a disembodied voice?

I’m not allowed to tell you anything about Mrs. Jarvis, I’m so sorry! I’m not allowed to tell you. But all I will say is that I’m absolutely… you know, lots of people have asked me about Anna, and I’m completely thrilled that obviously in the first four episodes she has not been viewed, she’s only been heard. And I’m thrilled that she’s managed to generate so much interest with only two off camera lines! [laughs]

Agent Carter, and Jarvis particularly, switches very quickly between humor and drama. What has it been like as an actor to handle that shifting tone?

I mean, just fantastic. Just wonderful. You know, I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much fun on a job, to be honest. I think our writers are magnificent and they are the ones who are very clever at flip-flopping between more comedic, lighter moments through wry irony into, you know, straight-up drama. And we should be so lucky that we get to deliver their dialogue. It is really, really great fun… working with Hayley is just so easy. We laugh our heads off all day, and I’m very sad that we’ve finished filming, to be honest.

If Agent Carter gets the second season we’re all rooting for, is there anything you’d like to see for Jarvis?

Look, I don’t want to start any rumors here, but I think there’s probably a spinoff show called Agent Jarvis that may be in the works. [laughs]

What would I like to see happen? I mean, look, it’s really of very little consequence what I would like to see happen. What I can tell you is, I think this is the greatest group of writers I’ve ever had the luck to work with. And if we were to do it again, I’m completely certain they would have fantastic ideas as to what to do next.

And they’ve already sort of floated a couple of possibilities about what could happen which are unlike the usual televisual suggestions, you know. There have been suggestions that have varied. It could be… well, it can’t be quite a continuation… no actually, it could be a continuation. I don’t know, I feel like I’ve landed on dangerous territory where I’m going to end up saying things I’m not supposed to say.

Suffice to say, everything I heard made me go, “Oh yeah! Do that, do that, that’s really exciting!” So we’ll see. We’ll see!

Fingers crossed! One last thing – we’ve heard a rumor about an impromptu production of Les Misérables on the set…

Oh no, that’s not a rumor, that definitely happened! That absolutely happened! Hayley and I went through the entire musical.

Photo: Hayley Atwell

In fact, the day in the tunnel when I was delivering the speech about what happened with Anna – well, it wasn’t a day, it was a night, we were shooting at night – and in between setups we were slightly delirious with tiredness. So in order to wake ourselves up, we started to sing show-tunes, which swiftly turned into doing the entirety of Les Mis – playing all the roles.

I make an excellent Fantine, just so you know.

Catch up on Agent Carter at ABC.go.com. Episode 5, “The Iron Ceiling,” airs on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 9:00 p.m. on ABC.