Malcolm in the Middle’s Frankie Muniz Addresses Character’s Last Name

Now, 25 years after the Fox series premiered—and amid the news the Agent Cody Banks star is reuniting with Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek for a revival—Frankie has come to certain realizations after watching the show in full for the first time with wife Paige Price.

“I watched all 151 episodes in like 2017 because I really didn't watch it when it was when I was out, and my wife had never seen the show,” he revealed. “So we sat down and watched it all. And that was an interesting one because you film so many episodes and there's so many things that happened. You go, ‘Oh, we filmed that? That's crazy.’”

He continued, “But my perspective of the show completely changed when I watched it. Like the show that I thought we were making, the comedy that I thought it was was not what it was—but in a positive way. It was an interesting thing to see.”

Another thing that shifted in watching it as an adult? Frankie’s opinion of his own character.

“One thing I realized after watching all the episodes is that Malcolm was the worst character on the show,” he admitted, adding of his costar Justin Berfield, “Reese I think was my favorite character, which when we filmed it, I didn't really like Reese. It’s weird how you watch it from an outside perspective and like stepping away from it, you can see something different.”

And fans are sure to see something different themselves when the show’s reboot finally hits screens.

“I’m so excited,” Frankie—whose new feature film Renner premieres in theaters Friday, Feb. 7—gushed of the spinoff series. “I think Brian and I first started talking at a dinner that we had in 2015. And the fact that now 10 years later, 25 years after the show started, it's going to happen—I'm really excited. I think people are going to be thrilled to see everybody and the ideas that they've come up with.”

He further teased, “Because that was a big thing for me, too, is like the possibilities are endless on what Malcolm and his family could be up to. I've read the scripts, so I know. And I think people are going to be pretty excited.”