The upcoming “Malcolm in the Middle” reboot pivoted to a Sunday to Thursday shooting schedule in order to accommodate star Frankie Muniz‘s career as a race car driver. Muniz is one of several original cast members returning for the reboot series, which is set to stream on Hulu next month 20 years after the original Fox sitcom ended. “Malcolm” originally ran for seven seasons and 151 episodes between 2000 and 2006.
In a new Entertainment Weekly profile of the reboot series, officially titled “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair,” it’s revealed that Muniz’s schedule was the hardest to coordinate among the original returning actors, which also include Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek and Christopher Masterson. That’s because Muniz has transitioned out of acting in recent years and has pivoted full-time to being a race car driver on the NASCAR circuit. He competes in the Craftsman Truck Series and races for the Reaume Brothers Racing team. Instead of shooting Monday to Friday, the “Malcolm” reboot moved its production days to Sunday-Thursday so that Muniz could continue racing.
“I would film Sunday through Wednesday, fly Thursday, race Friday, and fly back Saturday,” Muniz told EW. “It was exhausting, but I also know how cool it is to have the opportunity to get to do this again, so I wasn’t going to complain at all. I am so thankful to everybody on the production for working around my NASCAR schedule.”
Muniz added that returning for the “Malcolm” reboot series “was the first time in my career as an actor that I was happy to have the label ‘actor.’ When I was a kid, I just showed up and said the words and it all worked out. Now, I’m making a plan going into the scene. Doing the prep makes the process really, really fun.”
“Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” runs four episodes and streams April 10. The show’s official synopsis reads: “After shielding himself and his daughter from his family for over a decade, Malcolm is dragged back into their orbit when Hal and Lois demand his presence at their 40th anniversary party.”
The show’s original creator, Linwood Boomer, returns as writer and executive producer of the new iteration of the series.
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