Never Have I Ever Star Darren Barnet Wants to Play Young Joker (Exclusive)

Darren Barnet is best known for playing Paxton on Netflix's Never Have I Ever, and recently joined Agents of SHIELD for its seventh and final season. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to speak with Barnet about his career and learned how he prepped for his Marvel role. Despite not growing up reading comics, Barnet is a big fan of the Marvel movies, so we asked if there was any franchise or comic book character he'd like to play in the future.

"You know, I would love one day to play some kind of spin-off of the Joker, a young joker, something kind of dark and mysterious. I know this isn't a franchise per se, but if they made anything having to do with Fight Club where I could play a character similar to Tyler Durden played by Brad Pitt, that would be an absolute dream come true," Barnet revealed.

When asked if he did any Hydra research for his role as Wilfred "Freddy" Malick on Agents of SHIELD, Barnet shared that he wanted to know as much as his character. "I wish as a kid, I was more into comic books because it's such a rich history and I'm a fan of every Marvel movie. What's really been interesting to me is how deep the universe goes. I'm talking to my friend, 'Man, they're going to run out of movies soon.' And he's like, 'You need to understand that they've not even tapped the surface with Marvel.' So it was kind of cool, but I realized also I didn't want to brush up too much because I wanted to be true to the character, and being Wilfred Malick, he has no idea what Hydra is yet. He doesn't know anything about Agents of SHIELD, nothing. I kind of wanted to be true to him. I wanted to know what he knew, basically."

As for Joker, there have been rumors that the film, which earned Joaquin Phoenix an Academy Award for Best Actor, would be getting a sequel. However, director Todd Phillips has stated that there are currently no official plans for a follow-up.

Stay tuned for more from our interview with Darren Barnet, which includes his thoughts on Never Have I Ever's representation, his future goals, and more.

Agents of SHIELD airs Wednesday nights on ABC at 10 PM EST. Never Have I Ever is currently streaming on Netflix, and Joker is available to watch on HBO Max.