The Wilkersons are returning to TV after a two-decade absence, but at least one family member is missing from the Malcolm in the Middle reboot trailer. Ahead of the show’s premiere on Hulu on April 10th, the streamer on Monday released the first trailer for the highly anticipated Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. Although the trailer showed Frankie Muniz reprising his role as the titular character, Dewey Wilkerson was absent from the first-look footage.
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The upcoming series is set to pick up 19 years after the original show wrapped its seven-season run on Fox in 2006. Now a father, Malcolm has shielded himself and his daughter from his family’s crazy antics – that is, until he is dragged back into the family dynamic for his parents’ 40th anniversary party. As chaos ensues, the trailer gave fans a glimpse at the returning Wilkerson family: parents Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek), and their children, Francis (Christopher Masterson), Reese (Justin Berfield), and Malcolm (Muniz). The trailer did not show the youngest Wilkerson brother, Dewey, who was portrayed by Erik Per Sullivan throughout the original show but has been recast for the revival, with Caleb Ellsworth-Clark taking over the role.
Why Was Dewey Recast in the Malcolm in the Middle Revival?
Sullivan had been a staple of the original Malcolm in the Middle. The actor appeared throughout all of the original sitcom’s 151 episodes as the often-victimized younger brother and master schemer and manipulator, and so his absence in the reboot came as quite a shock and disappointment to long-time fans, especially given that the four-episode reboot will reunite most of the original cast. Although Sullivan was offered to return for the upcoming show, the actor ultimately declined, Cranston revealed on David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast in June.
After the beloved 2000s sitcom ended, Sullivan continued to act and appeared in titles like Once Not Far From Home and Arthur and the Invisibles before he stepped away from acting altogether. His final credit was in the 2010 movie Twelve. In the years since, Sullivan has led a mostly private life, and Kaczmarek revealed during an interview with Malcolm France that he is doing “very, very well” and studying Victorian literature at “a very prestigious American university.”
The role of Dewey is in good hands, though. Ellsworth-Clark has been acting since 2013, and he has appeared in a number of high-profile shows ranging from The Expanse to The Handmaid’s Tale, Fargo, and more. He is best known for his four-episode arc as Tucker Gardner on Syfy’s Wynonna Earp, and he most recently appeared in the 2025 short film No Artichokes. Given that none of the promotional material for the Malcolm in the Middle reboot has shown Ellsworth-Clark, fans will have to wait a bit longer to see him in the role of Dewey, but there’s some consolation in the fact that he does bear a striking resemblance to Sullivan, meaning it won’t be too jarring of a recasting.
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