The day the Fox nearly ordered a new season of Malcolm

Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) in front of the aison located at 12334 Cantura Street, Los Angeles. (Photo montage)

Invited to participate in an episode of the podcast SmartLess in January, Bryan Cranston, the unforgettable Hal in Malcolm, made a previously unseen revelation. Indeed, the 64-year-old actor said that a season 8 of Malcolm was considered by Fox in 2006.

« [En 2006,] Fox said, ‘Keep the sets. We could do an eighth season of Malcolm in the Middle […]. ‘ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, that would be great.’ “

An announcement which however did not take effect. So what happened? According to Bryan Cranston, everything happened during the pilot season, this time of year traditionally located between January and April when the major American networks order pilot episodes of series for the following year. Fox, finally satisfied with this period, ultimately did not follow up on its suggestion to renew the series, and therefore announced towards the end of April / beginning of May 2006 to the team of Malcolm that the series would – ultimately – not be renewed for a new season. That year, Fox will air 6 new series: Stanfoff, ‘To Death, The Winner, Happy Hour, Vanished, The Wedding Album. Apart from ‘To Death, none of them will go beyond the first season …

Anyway, the announcement of the end of the series Malcolm was a short-lived disappointment for Bryan Cranston who, as he says, received a phone call a few weeks later inviting him to meet Vince Gilligan to talk about a new project that is none other than … Breaking Bad. If the filming of the 8th season of Malcolm had taken place, the actor would never have played Walter White because he would not have been available for the filming of the pilot of Breaking Bad.

“We shot the pilot [Breaking Bad] in February and March 2007 therefore, if we had had this eighth season of Malcolm in the Middle, I wouldn’t have been available to shoot this pilot and someone else would be talking to you.

This is not the first time that a rumor concerning a sequel to the series has been raised by one of the actors. Frankie Muniz, the interpreter of Malcolm even told us that a script for a film was in preparation. However until today, no one had mentioned this 8th season which was actually envisioned by Fox, 14 years ago now.

You can listen to the full episode of the podcast with Bryan Cranston on Spotify :

SmartLess on Spotify

Also find Bryan Cranston in the mini-series of 10 episodes Your Honnor which has been broadcast since January 28, 2021, on Canal +.

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