Erik Per Sullivan will not return as Dewey in the Malcolm in the Middle reboot, and the role has been recast with Caleb Ellsworth-Clark. The new series, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, is now available to stream on Hulu.
Bryan Cranston said he reached out to Sullivan about the show’s return and found him excited about it, but not interested in stepping back in front of the camera. Cranston said Sullivan, 34, has left acting and is now pursuing academia, while Jane Kaczmarek said he is studying Dickens and Victorian literature. Her view of the former child star was simple and admiring: he is, she said, her “favorite American right now” because he knows exactly who he is.
That absence changes one of the reboot’s central reunions. Frankie Muniz, Cranston and Kaczmarek are reprising their original roles, and Christopher Masterson and Justin Berfield are also returning, but the character who helped define the show’s 2000s run is now being played by someone else. For fans who still remember Dewey as Erik Per Sullivan, the swap closes the door on the idea that the original cast would come back intact.
Kaczmarek said Sullivan was offered “buckets of money to come back,” underscoring how hard the production tried to get him aboard. Cranston echoed that point in different terms, saying Sullivan had stopped acting and gotten into academia, and that his passion is in studies. That leaves the reboot with a familiar family name and a missing piece, even as it moves ahead without waiting for a change of mind.
The unresolved part is not whether the show goes on. It already has. The question is whether viewers will accept a reboot built on nostalgia when one of its most recognizable characters has chosen a different life, and the answer will come fast once Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair starts drawing attention on Hulu.
