Malcolm in the Middle child star, Erik Per Sullivan, reportedly turned down “buckets of money” to appear in the Hulu revival of the classic family sitcom.
The former actor decided instead to continue his master’s degree at Harvard University.
Per Sullivan is the only member of the lovingly dysfunctional family to be recast for Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, set to release this month. Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Masterson, and Justin Berfield are all reprising their roles from the Emmy-winning comedy for the reboot.
Kaczmarek, who returns to play Lois, the family matriarch, told The Guardian that Per Sullivan turned down the role.
“He’s studying Dickens and is an incredible student,” the actress said. “They offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said: ‘No thank you.’”
The role of Dewey, one of Malcolm’s younger brothers, is now being played by actor Caleb Ellsworth-Clark. The Hulu series marks Ellsworth-Clark’s first major leading role.
Per Sullivan, now 34, acted in the original Malcolm in the Middle for the entire run of the series, which aired from 2000 to 2006. The child star has not been credited for an acting role since 2010.
His co-stars have been candid about Per Sullivan, shedding some light on the reclusive actor’s shift away from acting. In 2024, Kaczmarek, 70, said of her on-screen son: “He’s very, very well. He did ‘Malcolm’ for seven years. He started at 7, he ended at 14. He wasn’t interested in acting at all."
The former actor was spotted in Boston last week, in a rare public appearance.
Cranston, the 70-year-old Emmy-winning actor, has also been open about Per Sullivan’s decision not to return to play Dewey.
“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,’” Cranston shared on an episode of the Fly on the Wall podcast.
Cranston, who plays Malcolm’s father Hal, also explained that Per Sullivan has turned to a life in academia. “He’s actually going to Harvard. He’s really, really smart, and he’s getting his master’s at Harvard right now. He said, ‘Oh God, no, I haven’t acted since I was 9 or something. So I’m not into it.’”
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair sees the return of the family minus Malcolm. The child prodigy, played by Muniz, is now 40 and has been hiding from his parents and brothers for years until Hal and Lois demand that he appear at their 40th wedding anniversary celebration.
The four-episode reboot will release on Hulu on April 10.
