Frankie Muniz explains Malcolm in the Middle reboot Dewey recast

Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz has confirmed the reason why fans didn’t get reunited with Erik Per Sullivan after someone else was cast for the role as Dewey in the reboot of the show.

There was nothing more anticipated this year that Disney+ finally bringing back Malcolm in the Middle after two decades of being deprived of the family favorite show.

On April 10, the streaming platform released a four-part series, which follows Malcolm and his siblings as adults, having reunited for their parents’ (Hal and Lois) 40th anniversary.

Of the original cast, Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston, Frankie Muniz, Justin Berfield, and Christopher Masterson all reprise their roles.

However, Sullivan, who played Dewey in the original series, didn’t.

Now, Muniz has explained just why he chose not to return.

Eric Per Sullivan played Dewey in the original show (Disney)

Appearing on the Zach Sang Show, Muniz revealed that Sullivan had ‘worked hard’ after the show ended in 2006 to have a somewhat ‘normal’ life, and they wanted to respect that.

In fact, Per Sullivan is currently studying for a Master's in Victorian Literature at Harvard.

When asked why they didn’t simply write the character out of the show, Muniz said it was important that he was there, even if Dewey had a new face.

He said: “We knew from when we originally started talking about the idea 10 years ago that Eric, who played Dewey, was probably not going to come back.”

Explaining that Sullivan ‘likes where he’s at’, he said: “And to kind of come back and open everything back up again, I don’t know if he’d want to do that. So, we respected that, but he was like, ‘Please, please recast it. Please do it.’”

He shared that with the actor, there was 'no negativity or animosity at all’ and that 'when you see Caleb [Ellsworth-Clark], who plays Dewey’, he looks very similar.

Muniz joked of his similarity to Sullivan, telling the podcast host: "Bro, you can't tell me that's not Eric."

Caleb Ellsworth-Clark as Dewey in the reboot (Disney+/Hulu)

As for why they didn’t write him out of the show instead of recasting him, he said when people see Ellsworth-Clark, they’ll be ‘excited to see Dewey’ the character, rather than just wanting to see Sullivan.

Nevertheless, the show's creator Linwood Boomer and executive producer Tracy Katsky were hoping Per Sullivan would change his mind at the last minute.

In fact, the reason we mostly see Dewey on video calls during the reboot series was to try and entice Per Sullivan back.

Katsky told TVLine: "The reason that so much of what he does is on a screen is because we were hoping up until the last minute that Eric [Per Sullivan] would change his mind.

"Part of the way that Linwood wrote it was, 'We'll have you all on screen, so you can do the entire run in half a day.'"

Boomer said: "He finally said to me, 'Do you wanna be an actor again?'"

Boomer was an actor back in the 70s and 80s, before he pivoted to roles behind the camera.

Boomer continued: "I was like, 'No.' 'OK, well get off my back.'"

In an interview with The Guardian, Kaczmarek explained that the former actor had turned down a lot of cash to reprise his role.

She said: "They offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said: 'No thank you'."

Cranston also told the Fly on the Wall podcast he had a conversation with his former on-screen son and it didn’t go as planned.

"I talked to Erik, and I said, 'Hey, we got the show! It's going to come back.' He goes, 'Oh, that's fantastic!' And I go, 'Yeah, so we're looking forward to having you back.' He goes, 'Oh, no, no, I don't want to do it. But it's fantastic,'" he said.

But it’s nice that he’s doing his own thing.