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Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz has confirmed the reason why fans didn\u2019t get reunited with Erik Per Sullivan after someone else was cast for the role as Dewey in the reboot of the show.<\/strong> <\/p>\n There was nothing more anticipated this year that Disney+<\/a> finally bringing back Malcolm in the Middle<\/em><\/a> <\/em>after two decades of being deprived of the family favorite show. <\/p>\n On April 10, the streaming platform released a four-part series, which follows Malcolm and his siblings as adults, having reunited for their parents\u2019 (Hal and Lois) 40th anniversary. <\/p>\n Of the original cast, Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston and Frankie Muniz, <\/p>\n Justin Berfield, and Christopher Masterson all reprise their roles. <\/p>\n However, Sullivan, who played Dewey in the original series<\/a> didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n Now, Muniz has explained just why he chose not to return. <\/p>\n Eric Per Sullivan played Dewey in the original show (Disney)<\/cite><\/div>\n Appearing on the Zach Sang Show, <\/em>Muniz revealed that Sullivan had \u2018worked hard\u2019 after the 2000 show ended in 2006, to have a somewhat \u2018normal\u2019 life, and they wanted to respect that. <\/p>\n When asked why they didn\u2019t simply write the character out of the show<\/a>, Muniz said it was important that he was there, even if Dewey had a new face<\/a>. <\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n He added that \u2018he really worked hard after the show ended\u2019 to \u2018have a normal\u2019 life. <\/p>\n Explaining that Sullivan \u2018likes where he\u2019s at\u2019, he said: \u201cAnd to kind of come back and open everything back up again, I don’t – I don\u2019t know if he\u2019d want to do that. So, we respected that, but he was like, \u2018Please, please recast it. Please do it.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n He shared that with the actor, there was ‘no negativity or animosity at all\u2019 and that ‘when you see Caleb [Elssworth-Clark], who plays Dewey\u2019, he looks very similar. <\/p>\n Muniz joked of his similarity to Sullivan, telling the podcast host: “Bro, you can’t tell me that’s not Eric.” <\/p>\n As for why they didn\u2019t write him out of the show instead of recasting him, he said when people see Clark, they\u2019ll be \u2018excited to see Dewey\u2019 the character, rather than just wanting to see Sullivan. <\/p>\n But this isn\u2019t the first time members of the show have spoken about Sullivan, as in an interview with The Guardian<\/a>, Kaczmarek explained that the former actor, who went on to get a degree at university after the show ended, that he had turned down a lot of cash to reprise his role. <\/p>\n She said: “They offered him buckets of money to come back, and he just said: ‘No thank you’.” <\/p>\n