The “Malcolm in the Middle” revival will debut this week with nearly the entire original cast, but the actor who first played Dewey will be conspicuously absent, with his former costars saying he turned down “buckets of money” as he continues his studies at Harvard.
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The new series, titled “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair,” kicks off Friday on Hulu after a nearly 20 year absence for the Emmy-winning sitcom. And to those fans hoping for the entire cast to return, well — life is unfair.
Erik Per Sullivan, who played Malcolm’s younger brother in the original series, has decided not to return. He is currently studying at Harvard and declined the offer to participate in the reboot.
Jane Kaczmarek, who played the matriarch Lois on the show, told The Guardian that Per Sullivan was offered a significant “amount of money” but chose to focus on academics instead.
“He’s studying Dickens and is an incredible student. They offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said, ‘No thank you,’” Kaczmarek said.
Additional insight came from the “Fly on the Wall” podcast, where Bryan Cranston, the Emmy-winning star of “Breaking Bad” who returns to his comedy roots to play bumbling dad Hal, shared that Per Sullivan was excited but ultimately chose not to take part.
“I talked to Erik, and I said, ‘Hey, we got the show! It’s going to come back.’ 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,’” Cranston said.
Cranston added in the podcast that Per Sullivan mentioned he has not acted since childhood and simply did not want to return to acting.
“He’s actually going to Harvard,” Cranston said. “He’s really, really smart, and he’s getting his master’s at Harvard right now. He said, ‘Oh God, no, I haven’t acted since I was 9 or something. So I’m not into it.’”
Without Per Sullivan opting out, the role of Dewey was recast with actor Caleb Ellsworth-Clark.
The original “Malcolm in the Middle” ran for seven seasons, produced more than 150 episodes, and earned multiple awards, according to IMDb’s episode list.
The revival begins with Malcolm, played by Frankie Muniz, attending Hal and Lois’s 40th wedding anniversary party, according to Hulu.
Cranston has expressed enthusiasm about returning to his role on the show.
“It was seven great years of my life, in which I met the most wonderful people,” he told the Guardian. “There’s no better job than going to work and thinking of how to be funny.”