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Despite his dysfunctional family roots, Frankie Muniz‘s eponymous character is “right at home” on the set of the forthcoming Disney+ revival of the beloved aughts sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.
The actor-turned-NASCAR racer teased the early stages of the four-episode reprisal, announced back in December in time for this year’s 25th anniversary of the show’s Jan. 9, 2000 airdate, to People in a new interview.
Though Muniz maintained that his character was “the worst” on the show and “sucked,” he added that he is “obviously so thrilled” to return to the Wilkerson clan and is excited “to get back on set with everybody.”
“We started talking about [a reboot] literally 10 years ago — me and [co-star] Bryan Cranston — and slowly been working at it and it’s finally a reality,” he said. “So 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. And it was so weird to go back and be with Linwood Boomer, the creator, and Ken Kwapis, the director, and be back in that mindset. Oddly, it was right at home.”
Returning alongside Muniz and on-screen father Cranston will be the Wilkerson matriarch, portrayed by Jane Kaczmarek. The revival’s plot will feature a grown-up Malcolm, who has a wife and daughter, drawn into his parents’ chaos once more for Hal (Cranston) and Lois’ (Kaczmarek) 40th wedding anniversary party.
The original seminal single-cam comedy was both a hit for Fox and admired by critics, winning a total of seven Emmys across the same number of seasons when it aired from 2000 to 2006. Also garnering a Grammy and Peabody, the show centered on a gifted teen trying to come of age in a chaotic household full of loud and oft-dimwitted grown-ups and siblings.