Frankie Muniz Breaks Down How the 'Malcolm in the Middle' Revival Destroys His "Perfect" New Life

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair.

Everyone's favorite high-strung middle child is back with Hulu's Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair revival series. From the original series creator, Linwood Boomer, and with nearly the entire OG cast, this limited return brings all the chaos and stress and life lessons we fell in love with over 20 years ago. Now that all four episodes of Life's Still Unfair are available to stream, star Frankie Muniz talks with Collider's Steve Weintraub about those hilarious twists and whether we'll be seeing Malcolm again anytime soon.

Over two decades since Malcolm in the Middle Season 7 ended, Muniz says, "He's actually in a really good place." Gone are the days of the "frustrated and angry" Malcolm. He's running his own organization, he has a wonderful relationship with his daughter Leah (Keeley Karsten), and "an amazing girlfriend who truly, truly loves him for who he is," played by Fear Street's Kiana Madeira. But this all comes crumbling down when his parents, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek as Hal and Lois, insist he come to their 40th anniversary — and now we know why!

In this interview, which you can watch in the video above or read in the transcript below, Muniz talks about the joy of returning to this character he tells Weintraub he "always" thought about. (In fact, it very well could have been Muniz's viral post about seeing the family 10 years later that sparked this revival.) He discusses Cranston's continued fearlessness on screen, why he loved Boomer's scripts, and his thoughts on continuing beyond these four episodes.

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"It was a really surreal moment."

COLLIDER: I’ve seen all four episodes, and I really want to say congrats. They're very, very, very funny.

FRANKIE MUNIZ: Awesome. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, we're excited.

You should be. Fans are going to absolutely love it. So I like throwing a curveball at the beginning, and today it is: Have you ever asked anyone for their autograph?

MUNIZ: Definitely, when I was younger. I actually was just telling my family this story last night. We were walking through Times Square — there's a giant Malcolm billboard there right now, so we wanted to go and see it — and we were right under 1515 Broadway, which is where they used to film TRL. My mom and I, when I used to come into the city to audition for stuff, way before I got Malcolm, we would go there every night to see what celebrity would come to the glass and wave down, or we'd go to where they filmed David Letterman. I actually got Cindy Crawford's autograph, and she took a picture with me. I was the only autograph that she gave, and the only picture she took, when I was maybe 11 or 12.

And a funny story about the TRL thing is, I would always be in the crowd cheering up to Britney Spears, or whoever it was who was on TRL that day, and two or three months later, once the show had come out, I was at the window waving down to the people. So, it was a really surreal moment that I was reminded of yesterday when we were walking through Times Square.

That's a great story. Thank you for sharing. One of the things about Malcolm, which really always blew me away, was just how fearless Bryan Cranston is. He’s willing to get naked, covered with bees, the list goes on and on and on. What was it like actually watching him on set? He's fearless again in the revival.

MUNIZ: He is definitely the most committed actor there is. There's nothing he's afraid to take on, and he does it better than anybody could. He's just an incredible actor, for sure, and definitely was willing to do a lot of things that I don't think a lot of actors would do. They would have to use a lot more stunt doubles, definitely, than were used on Malcolm in the Middle.

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"He's kind of been living this double life."

Over the years, I'm sure you thought about Malcolm. Maybe you didn't, but I'm imagining you did. Did you ever think about where he was, and how close did that come to what was actually in the scripts?

MUNIZ: I always did. I was always wondering what Malcolm could be up to. Because if you really think about it, the possibilities could be endless. You can make it be anything. So, I think I tweeted that in 2015 or 2016, which kind of started the idea, potentially, of a revival happening. I was like, “I wonder what Malcolm and his family are up to 10 years later.” And that kind of went a little viral. I couldn't believe the fan response.

I remember being just so anxious to see what Linwood [Boomer] and the writers came up with, and I was really excited when I got to read it and to finally know, and to finally see. When you see Malcolm for the first time in 20 years, he's actually in a really good place. If you remember Malcolm, he was always kind of frustrated and angry and thought the world was out to get him, and life is unfair, and, like I said, he's in a good place. He's got a great organization he runs, he's got an amazing daughter and a relationship with her, and an amazing girlfriend who truly, truly loves him for who he is. Everything is just clicking and going good. The surprise is how he got into that mindset, which I can't fully reveal yet. Hopefully people watch it and enjoy it, but no, I love it.

I thought it was so funny that he's been hiding his daughter, and the fact that he also never told his girlfriend that he had brothers. These are just great, great jokes. And the way that he just freaks out when his worlds are colliding. Can you talk about reading that in the script for the first time, and also playing that manic Malcolm again, where he's just freaking out? You did a great job.

MUNIZ: [Laughs] Thanks. The fun dynamic of the fact that the way that Malcolm has gotten his life “together,” or he's put so much blame on his frustration and the things that were going bad in his life on his family, on the pressure they put on him. They brought out the worst in him. He couldn't just be. He was always just arguing and fighting, and he was always angry with the family. So, the way he's gotten into this good mindset is just by staying completely away from them and not talking to them at all. They don't know that he has a teenage daughter. His daughter thinks that his parents aren't even alive. His girlfriend doesn't know that he has siblings. He's kind of been living this double life.

And immediately, they see it. His daughter and his girlfriend see a side of him that they've never seen before, which is the old Malcolm. They've never seen that. Getting to play that and have fun with it… I think in the four episodes, they’re very short episodes, but he goes through every single emotion that there is on the planet, and it was actually really, really fun to get to do that. I had a blast. I really loved getting to be Malcolm again and getting to play with some of that emotion as an actor. When I was Malcolm before, I was a kid, right? I kind of just showed up on set and was lucky that it worked, that I just said the words the right way. But it was really fun to come back as an adult and really get to play with the emotion and the highs and the lows of all of it. I had a blast, for sure.

Frankie Muniz "Would Love to Continue" After 'Life's Still Unfair'

"It ain't me holding it up!"

Again, I thought the four episodes were just so good, and I think one of the reasons they’re so good is because it's just four episodes. It's like a movie, but cut into four parts. So you have to be wondering, if it's a hit, are you thinking about where it could go? Is that something that even enters your mind?

MUNIZ: Yeah, of course it does. I know that it was not the intention for it to go beyond the four episodes. That doesn't mean that it couldn't happen. But no, the idea was you're going to see everybody again, get caught up, and that was it. But obviously, the buzz around the show right now and the excitement that people are showing for it, who knows what will happen?

I would love to continue it. I had such a good time getting to remake the show and play the character again. I think all of us really did. So, I don't think anybody would be opposed to it, but like I said, that wasn't necessarily the intention. So, I hope people accept that this is it. This is the four episodes. I hope you watch it, and I hope you tell everyone to watch it, and we'll see what happens in the future.

I personally would love to see more if you guys wanted to do it.

MUNIZ: I would love to. You don’t have to worry. It ain't me holding it up! I’ll say that. [Laughs]

All four episodes of Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair are now available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.