Frankie Muniz is open to critique – even from himself.

The Malcolm in the Middle star told PEOPLE that in 2017, he finally sat down with his wife and watched every episode of his beloved Fox sitcom. But the pair came away with an unexpected conclusion.

“She looked at me at the very end and she goes, ‘You weren’t acting at all. You are literally Malcolm,'” Muniz said. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to take that because Malcolm sucked.’ He was the worst character on that show!”

Muniz is currently gearing up for the return of the series after 25 years off the air. The actor and his on-screen parents, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek, announced the revival, which will take the form of a four-episode miniseries, in a December video shared to Instagram.

“Let’s find out where Malcolm and his family are now,” Muniz said, with Cranston adding, “25 years since we premiered Malcolm in the Middle. I’m so excited… that I may have peed just a little bit.” Kaczmarek called it “a delight that I get to yell at that kid again!”

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Muniz has only ever spoken positively of the prospect of reviving Malcolm in the Middle, which aired from 2000-2006 and earned several competitive industry honors, including a Grammy, a Peabody, and seven Emmys and Golden Globes a piece.

Though Muniz pivoted from acting to open-wheel and stock car racing in 2008, he told PEOPLE he’s “obviously so thrilled” for the series’ return, and is excited to “get back on set with everybody.”

“We started talking about [a reboot] literally 10 years ago,” he explained. “Me and [costar] Bryan Cranston — and slowly been working at it and it’s finally a reality… So I’m really excited. I had to do some chemistry reads. I can’t tell you with what characters, but new characters that would be on the show. And it was so weird to go back and be with Linwood Boomer, the creator, and Ken Kwapis, the director, and be back in that mindset.”

Muniz and Cranston have kept in close touch over the years, with Muniz revealing last November that the Breaking Bad star “still reaches out to me every couple of weeks, check in on me.” Muniz said calls Cranston “a father figure” who “really cares about what I’m doing, comes to the races, if my band was playing, came to shows. I mean, he’s such an inspiration, and like I said, that’s what I strive to be that for someone else in the future.”

The limited series revival is set to follow Muniz’s titular Malcolm and his daughter drawn back into the family chaos after Cranston’s Hal and Kaczmarek’s Lois demand his return for their 40th wedding anniversary party.