The answer to this fan theory is yes—but also no.
Malcolm in the Middle’s Frankie Muniz, who played the eponymous teen on the series, recently shed light on one of the show’s most enduring questions: what is the family’s last name?
“I think the initial pilot when we filmed in 1999, when we did the initial press junket, they put Malcolm Wilkerson,” Frankie told E! News’ Will Marfuggi in an exclusive interview, lending credence to a long-running fan theory. “And then there was an episode where either Hal or Francis was wearing a name tag and it said Wilkerson.” (For more with Frankie, tune into E! News tonight, Feb. 11 at 11 p.m.)
Yet, while Frankie confirmed there is some truth to the theory, ultimately it was decided the family was to be last-nameless.
“They went away with it because they really wanted it to be like, it could be your family, it could be the neighbors,” the 39-year-old explained. “We never said where we lived either. Didn’t want to set a boundary of what we could or couldn’t do on the show. Then it just became a thing that no one knows their last name.”
