Bryan Cranston Is Working on a Script for a ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ Reboot
Fans of dysfunctional family sitcoms rejoice — the Malcolm in the Middle series could have a reboot in the works, if Malcolm himself is to be believed. Frankie Muniz spoke to Fox News Digital and let it slip that the show’s biggest star, Bryan Cranston, has been working on a possible resurrection for the beloved show about a struggling family that is cursed with four sons and no money.
Muniz spoke at length about the post-Malcolm struggles he experienced during his remarkable life after television, which included a career as a professional racecar driver and a brief stint in the music industry before returning to TV for the reboot of VH1’s Surreal Life. The new iteration of the reality show features a fittingly bizarre lineup of stars alongside Muniz that includes August Alsina, CJ Perry, Dennis Rodman, Kim Coles, Stormy Daniels and Manny MUA. But the juicy bit that we’re after is the tag at the end of the interview, when Muniz casually mentioned that Cranston is currently writing a script for a Malcolm in the Middle reboot.
"When I was filming the show, I obviously was a kid," Muniz explained about Malcolm in the Middle. "We did seven seasons, 151 episodes. I didn’t really watch the show when it was on, but I’ve now since watched the show with my wife. We all 151 episodes. … I realized, ‘Wow, that’s what we were making.’… I can separate myself from being on it and watching it as a fan."
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Somehow, somewhere, a rumor was started that Muniz lost all memory of Malcolm and that the former child star had no recollection of the defining series of his television career. It turns out that having a hazy memory of stuff you did when you were 14 years old is is just… how growing up works? Muniz clarified that, while he has suffered concussions due to his extreme sports career, his mind certainly hasn’t gone blank when it comes to his comedy roots.
“I think a lot of the memory talk or my lack of memory talk was … maybe blown out of proportion, more than it truly is. I think when I reflect now why there are so many things that maybe I forget, or I forget things I did when I was a kid I was doing so much. I was working maybe 13 hours a day, and I was flying all over the world. You know, I was always really busy that it’s hard to absorb everything. It’s hard to take everything in."
“I would love to know what the family’s up to,” Muniz said of the possibility of a Malcolm in the Middle reboot. "I know Bryan Cranston is really into the idea, and he’s kind of heading writing the script and getting everything rolling. So there might be something. I would be down 100 percent,” he assured fans who have been waiting for an update on the lives of Malcolm, Hal, Lois, Dewey, Reese and Francis since the show’s confusing finale back in 2006.
The last episode threw viewers a curveball when Hal and Lois revealed to Malcolm, as he prepared to leave for Harvard, that they had been preparing him for his destiny as the “greatest president in history” by subjecting him to the struggles of a lower-class life in order to create an empathetic genius capable of improving the lives of families like his.
There was also a bizarre Breaking Bad alternate ending that showed Bryan Cranston waking up in Hal’s bed, explaining the plot of Breaking Bad to Lois as if it were all a dream, an homage to the famous Newhart ending.
Perhaps the reboot will drop us en medias res during Malcolm’s campaign trail? Or maybe we’ll see Hal try and remember the blue meth recipe so he can raise some money to fix his clunker car. Maybe both?
We’re up for anything, as long as they don’t bring back Jessica.
