Frankie Muniz shares finishing “Malcolm in the Middle” revival was the first time 'I was happy to call myself an actor'
- - Frankie Muniz shares finishing “Malcolm in the Middle” revival was the first time 'I was happy to call myself an actor'
Lauren HuffDecember 17, 2025 at 3:27 AM
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Deborah Feingold/FOX; Eric McCandless via Getty
Frankie Muniz as TV's Malcolm and in 2018 for 'Dancing With the Stars'
The upcoming Malcolm in the Middle revival marks a surprising career first for Frankie Muniz.
"One interesting thing ... it was the first time in my entire life that, when I was done filming the reboot, I was happy to call myself an actor," he told PEOPLE of the miniseries, dubbed Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair. "I've always been like, 'Oh yeah, I act, but I also do these other things too.'... It was just really fun and a really cool experience, so I'm hoping that everyone loves it for sure."
The much-beloved original series aired for seven seasons from 2000 to 2006 on Fox and followed a comically dysfunctional family and their child prodigy middle child, played by Muniz. Per the official logline for the revived series, "After shielding himself and his daughter (Keeley Karsten) from his family for over a decade, Malcolm (Muniz) is dragged back into their orbit when Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) demand his presence at their 40th anniversary party."
'Malcolm in the Middle' cast
The cast for the new series also includes returning stars Chris Kennedy Masterson, Justin Berfield, and Emy Coligado. Malcolm's brother Dewey will be played by a new actor, Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, as Erik Per Sullivan is not returning. New stars also include Karsten, Kiana Madeira, and Vaughan Murrae.
Elsewhere in his interview with PEOPLE, Muniz acknowledged that he was "excited" to start working on the new series, but wasn't sure what it would be like to return after all of these years.
"When I was doing Malcolm 20 years ago, I was a kid," Muniz told the outlet. "I was like 13 to 20 when I was on the show, and I just kind of showed up and was excited to be there and said the words that were on the paper, and it worked."
He continued, "As an adult, you tend to overthink things...and you put more pressure on yourself as well. So I didn't know what it was gonna be like — if it was going to be easy to be Malcolm, if it was gonna be awkward back with the cast. And not to sound like cliché, but it was as if not a single day went by. All of us — every single person — like instantly fell back into their characters with, I'm talking the first table read."
Not only was the miniseries the first time Muniz felt happy to call himself an actor, but he admitted it was also "probably one of the best times I've ever had on a set."
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Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair will premiere in 2026 on Hulu and Disney+.
on Entertainment Weekly
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