Bryan Cranston Reveals Why 1 Co-Star Won’t Return for 'Malcolm in the Middle' Reboot

12.06.2025 22:47

Bryan Cranston was excited to get back into character for the Malcolm in the Middle reboot, but one of his TV sons didn’t feel the same way.

During a June 2025 appearance on the Fly on the Wall podcast, Cranston revealed that Erik Per Sullivan, who played his son Dewey on the Fox sitcom from 2000 to 2006, was the only person from the original cast who refused to return for the revival.

"I talked to Erik, and I said, 'Hey, we got the show! It's going to come back,’” Cranston said on the podcast. “He goes, 'Oh, that's fantastic!' And I go, 'Yeah, so we're looking forward to having you back.' He goes, 'Oh, no, no, I don't want to do it. But it's fantastic.’ He said, 'Oh God, no, I haven't acted since I was 9 or something. So I'm not into it.'"

"He's actually going to Harvard," Cranston added of Per Sullivan. "He's really, really smart, and he's getting his master's at Harvard right now.”

The Dewey character won't be sent off to school for the revival. Instead, the role has been recast with Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, People magazine reported in April.

The rest of the original Malcolm cast, including Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Frankie Muniz, Christopher Masterson, and Justin Berfield, will be back for the four-episode revival set for Disney+.

Per Sullivan’s IMDb page shows that his last on-screen appearance was in 2010 in the movie Twelve — and he wasn’t the only star from Malcolm in the Middle to take a break from acting. Muniz put his acting career on hold for years to pursue a career as a professional race car driver, but he was happy to return for the reboot. In May, Muniz, 39, posted to X to tell fans he was “reeling” after wrapping the revival.

“This experience was straight-up incredible—like stepping back into Malcolm’s wild world but with all the love and chaos cranked to 11," the actor wrote. "Reuniting with the cast, getting to know some new characters, laughing till it hurt, and making new memories on set felt like a dream I didn’t want to wake up from."

The Malcolm in the Middle revival will air on Disney+ later this year.