Erik Per Sullivan who plays Dewey on the hit FOX series 'Malcolm In The Middle' doubles his fun at the FOX 2000 summer press tour in Pasadena, CA on Friday, July 21, 2000. Photo credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Unfair stars Frankie Muniz and Jane Kaczmarek are explaining why Erik Per Sullivan, who played Malcolm’s younger brother, Dewey, in the original Malcolm in the Middle, didn’t return for the revival series.
Also featuring original series star Bryan Cranston, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Unfair premiered on streaming on Hulu on Disney+ with a four-episode mini-series event on Friday. The original Malcolm in the Middle series ran for seven seasons on Fox from 2000 to 2006.
In Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Unfair, Malcolm (Muniz), who has avoided his eccentric family for 10 years, is pulled back into their lives — along with his daughter, Leah (Keeley Karsten) — when his dad and mom, Hal (Cranston) and Lois (Kaczmarek), want their son to come back to help them celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
In addition to Cranston, Muniz and Kaczmarek, other Malcolm in the Middle original cast members Chris Kennedy Masterson (Francis), Justin Berfield (Reese) and Emy Coligado (Piama) returned. However, Sullivan was replaced by actor Caleb Ellsworth-Clark (The Expanse, Wynonna Earp).
Justin Berfield, Erik Per Sullivan, Bryan Cranston, Linwood Boomer, Frankie Muniz, Jane Kaczmarek and Christopher Kennedy Masterson (Photo by Jesse Grant/WireImage for Fox Television Network)
WireImage for Fox Television Network
In an April 3 interview with The Guardian, Kaczmarek said that the production wanted Sullivan to reprise Dewey, but he’s putting his master’s degree studies at Harvard first.
“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 told The Guardian.
Commenting on Sullivan’s absence on the podcast The Zang Sang Show, Muniz said the production had a feeling 10 years ago that Sullivan would not return for a reboot of Malcolm in the Middle because “he worked really hard after the show ended … to go back to a normal life.”
“He likes where he’s at and to kind of come back and open everything up again, I don’t know that he wanted to do that,” Muniz told Sang. “So, we respected that, and he was like, ‘Please, please recast it. Please do it. There was no negativity or animosity at all.”
While Frankie Muniz told The Zang Sang Show that Caleb Ellsworth-Clark instantly made him feel that he actually was Erik Per Sullivan on the Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair set, Ellsworth-Clark admitted in an interview with People published on Friday that he approached playing the character with worry.
“I grew up watching the show,” Ellsworth-Clark explained to People, “I know that Dewey was a fan favorite, but he was also a personal favorite. And I think I was aware that maybe people might be disappointed Erik wasn’t gonna come back and do the show. I guess I didn’t want to f--k that up.”
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"They were so warm and welcoming," Ellsworth-Clark told People. "I was really scared to show up but they all took such great care of me and made me feel like I belong. So, I am really grateful to all of them."
Caleb Ellsworth-Clark at the "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair" Red Carpet Premiere held at DGA New York Theater on April 07, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety via Getty Images
Ellsworth-Clark isn’t the only new actor to enter the world of Malcolm in the Middle with Life’s Still Unfair. The mini-series also introduces new cast members Vaughan Murrae as Malcolm’s youngest sibling, Kelly, and Kiana Madeira as Malcolm’s girlfriend, Tristan.
All four episodes of Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair — as well as all 151 episodes of Malcolm in the Middle — are streaming on Hulu on Disney+.
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