‘Malcolm In the Middle’ Stars React to Erik Per Sullivan Absence: ‘Respect That Kid’ (Exclusive)

20 years after they last left our TV screens, all the stars of Malcolm In the Middle are back for a 4-part revival. Well, almost all of them.

Debuting Friday, April 10, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, Malcolm In the Middle: Life's Still Unfair reunites Hal, Lois, and their children as they continue to put the fun in dysfunctional. While Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Frankie Muniz, Justin Berfield, and Christopher Kennedy Masterson all returned for the new episodes, a few new faces have joined the family, too.

Erik Per Sullivan decided against returning as Dewey, instead choosing to focus on pursuing his Master’s at Harvard. Caleb Ellsworth-Clark replaced him, while Anthony Timpano plays an adult version of baby Jamie, and Vaughan Murrae joins the show as the family’s youngest child, after Lois learned she was pregnant in the original series finale.

Ahead of the premiere, Men’s Journal spoke with both Cranston and Kaczmarek about Per Sullivan’s decision to sit out the big reunion, as well as how their bond with their TV children continued in the two decades after the show went off the air.

Erik Per Sullivan Not Returning

The pair said it was Cranston who really pushed for new episodes, after fans continued to ask him what he thought happened after the finale. Eventually, after pestering creator Linwood Boomer enough, the revival started to come into focus.

“Everybody was over the moon, ready to go, except for Erik Per Sullivan,” Cranston told Men’s Journal. “I said, ‘Erik, it looks like we're doing the show.’ He says, ‘Fantastic!’ I go, ‘Oh, I’m glad you wanna do it!’ He said, ‘No, no, I don't want to do it. I’m just happy that you’re doing it.’ We lost him to academia.”

“I have to say, I respect that kid so much for knowing who he is, knowing that he’s so happy with what he’s doing, studying Dickens and Victorian literature,” added Kaczmarek. “Even if you throw a bucket of money at him, he says, ‘Thank you, I'm good.’ He’s my favorite American alive.”

Being TV Parents to Growing Boys

All three of the boys on the show were, well, boys when it first debuted. When the series premiered, Masterson was the oldest, at 19, Muniz was 14, while Berfield was only a couple of months younger than him. Per Sullivan, meanwhile, was just 8.

Cranston and Kaczmarek watched them all grow up over the six years and seven seasons that followed.

“Bryan used to bring Erik, who played Dewey, his parents lived out of town, and the mother would be here with him, and there were occasions where Bryan would take Dewey home with him for the weekend,” said Kaczmarek.

“That sounds like a to-go meal!" quipped Cranston, before his on-screen wife added, “I was like, I love those kids as much as any TV mom, but I’m not going to bring one home for the weekend!”

Cranston explained that his daughter, The Pitt star Taylor Dearden, was around the same age as Per Sullivan.

“And they were friends, so for Halloween and stuff, they would dress up and go off together,” he told Men’s Journal. "It was nice, it was good.”

“And they were good kids. Francis was horrible, the character, but all those boys, they were good kids on that show as teenagers,” added Kaczmarek. “None of them were getting into all the things teenagers get into these days. They were good kids.”

Praise for Adult Frankie Muniz

In the years since the show went off the air in 2006, Cranston said he’s had “varying degrees of being able to stay in contact” with their TV children.

“Yes, we’re the television parents, but I do feel a sense of parental pride for these boys and the men they have grown into being,” he continued. “They’re all fathers themselves, they get it, they realize the complexity of being a parent.”

“They were good kids and really good men now,” he added.

For Kaczmarek, one of the greatest “gifts” of the revival was seeing how much Muniz, in particular, has transformed since 2006.

“A great gift we had in doing this was seeing Frankie as a grown man and realizing what a terrific actor he is,” she shared. “He was great as Malcolm in the beginning, but Bryan and I both said there were a couple of scenes where we go, ‘This kid is doing terrific.’”

“Really nailing it," Cranston agreed.

“And this kid has been racing cars and a million other things. But like, have you ever considered acting?” Kaczmarek joked. “You might want to reconsider. I think you might have a future in this!”

See Hal, Lois, and the rest of the crew back in action when Malcolm In the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair debuts Friday, April 9, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.