Frankie Muniz Says Malcolm Is the Worst Part of ‘Malcolm in the Middle’
Frankie Muniz feels that his character in Malcolm in the Middle paled in comparison to the rest of the cast, but it’s not his fault — sometimes, life is unfair.
Nearly 19 years after the series’ original iconic finale and following a solid a decade of reboot rumors, the cult-beloved Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle is nearing the start of production on its officially greenlit Disney+ revival, and the cast couldn’t be happier. Bryan Cranston, of course, has been calling for more Malcolm in the Middle ever since we first learned that the titular working-class wunderkind was destined to become the most empathetic president in the history of the United States of America, and Muniz, who grew up to become a stock car racer instead of the head of state, is ready to un-retire from TV comedy, even if it means getting upstaged on a show where he’s both the lead and the narrator.
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In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, Muniz revealed that he and his wife Paige have been rewatching Malcolm in the Middle in preparation for the return, and he now realizes that, compared to Hal, Lois, Dewey and Reese, Malcolm is simply in a lower class of comedy.
According to a Disney+ press release for the Malcolm revival, the new season will follow Muniz’ grown-up boy genius as he is “drawn into the family’s chaos when Hal (Cranston) and Lois (Kaczmarek) demand his presence for their 40th wedding anniversary party.” In order to properly prepare himself for the anarchic family reunion, Muniz reviewed his early work and found it lacking.
During the talk with PEOPLE, Muniz reported that, when his wife watched Malcolm in the Middle start-to-finish, “She looked at me at the very end and she goes, ‘You weren’t acting at all. You are literally Malcolm.’” Unfortunately for Muniz, however, he didn’t think that his wife’s review was much of a compliment. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to take that because Malcolm sucked.’ He was the worst character on that show!”
But despite Muniz’ less-than-positive retrospective view on the biggest role of his career, he is “obviously so thrilled” to start working on the Malcolm in the Middle reboot and “to get back on set with everybody.” As Muniz recalled of the annoyingly long rumor phase that preceded this pre-production stage for the Malcolm return, “We started talking about (a reboot) literally 10 years ago — me and Bryan Cranston — and slowly been working at it and it’s finally a reality.”
Muniz then teased of what fans can expect from this future iteration of the Malcolm formula, saying, “I’m really excited. I had to do some chemistry reads. I can’t tell you with what characters, but new characters that would be on the show.”
As for Muniz’ reservations about his own role, Malcolm is one of those sitcom characters whose weighty responsibility as the main POV and title role often outweighed the duty expected of everyone on a comedy show: Be funny. Yes, Malcolm didn’t get as many laugh-out-loud lines as his parents or brothers, but that’s just because he had the noble but often unenviable job of carrying the series on his back, and that’s a more thankless gig than endlessly spouting perfect punchlines like a Dewey or a Reese.
In other words, Lois was right about her son when she revealed his destiny in the finale — so, Frankie, look me in the eyes and tell me you can’t do it.
