Turns out you very much can go home again.
Or, at least that’s the case for much of Malcolm in the Middle’s tight-knit cast. Frankie Muniz told E! News that he and TV dad Bryan Cranston first discussed bringing the Wilkersons back to screens during a dinner in 2015—roughly nine years after they ended their seven-season run.
“And the fact that now 10 years later, 25 years after the show started, it’s going to happen—I’m really excited,” the 39-year-old shared this past February. “I think people are going to be thrilled to see everybody and the ideas that they’ve come up with.”
The four-episode Disney+ revival will center around Malcolm returning home for his parents’ 40th anniversary party, bringing his daughter Leah (played by Keeley Karsten) along for the reunion.
“You’re going to see a lot of characters from the past, from all seven seasons,” Muniz detailed to E!. “They’re bringing a lot of people back.”
His onscreen brother Erik Per Sullivan, however, will not be among them.
While the rest of the Wilkersons—including parents Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and Hal (Cranston) and their kids Malcolm (Muniz), Francis (Justin Berfield) and Reese (Christopher Masterson)—signed on for the limited series, The Silencing actor Caleb Ellsworth-Clark was tapped to step into Dewey’s shoes.
After committing to a handful of projects in the year after Malcolm in the Middle wrapped, Per Sullivan filmed just one other movie, the 2010 crime thriller Twelve, which also featured Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, 50 Cent, Rory Culkin and Zoë Kravitz.
“He’s very very well,” Kaczmarek noted during an April 2024 appearance at the Paris Manga Sci-fi Show. “He did Malcolm for seven years. He started at 7, he ended at 14. He wasn’t interested in acting at all.”
Rather, much like his witty onscreen alter ego, Per Sullivan was more inclined to focus on academics. Following a stint at the University of Southern California, the 33-year-old is now a graduate student studying Victorian Literature.
And while his onscreen fam is preparing to revisit their old roles, he was recently photographed running errands in Boston.
It does appear that Per Sullivan looks back on his time as a Wilkerson with fondness.
In a January 2023 Instagram post, he referenced his “unforgettable moments as dewey in the tv series malcolm in the middle.”
And last March, he captioned a throwback, “How lucky I am.”
He simply doesn’t feel the urge to step back in front of the camera.
As his onscreen mother explained last year, “So many people think being in show business is the greatest thing in the world, [but] it’s not for everyone.”
As we await the surprises that are in store with the Malcolm in the Middle revival, check out how other child stars have fared since their fame-making gigs.