• James Van Der Beek announced he will not be at the Dawson’s Creek reunion and table read in New York City on Monday, September 22.
  • The actor, who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year, had to drop out due to illness.
  • The role of Dawson will be played...by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The cast of Dawson’s Creek will be reuniting tonight for a special Dawson’s Creek Class Reunion event, but they’ll be missing a key player: Dawson himself. Sadly, James Van Der Beek was forced to drop out of the Dawson’s Creek reunion due to illness—he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year. But when he announced the news on his Instagram page, it wasn’t all bad news—just wait until you find out who is going to be filling in.

“This is the evening I’d been looking forward to MOST since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together, way back in January,” James wrote, sharing a promo image for the event. “So you can imagine how gutted I was when two stomach viruses conspired to knock me out of commission and keep me grounded at the worst possible moment.”

So, given that the Dawson’s Creek reunion was supposed to include a table read of the pilot episode—with stars Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Mary-Margaret Humes, John Wesley Shipp, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith, Busy Phillips, and Meredith Monroe all set to appear—what happens now?

You can’t have Dawson’s Creek without Dawson, so it’s time to call in the understudy: Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Lin has yet to comment on the news, but James seems confident that he’ll be able to fill Dawson’s yearning, Spielberg-loving shoes, calling the understudy “a ridiculously overqualified replacement who would have been #1 on my wishlist” and “someone my kids would definitely consider an upgrade over me.”

This will definitely make for an interesting night, but why Lin? While I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the brains behind Hamilton is also a huge Dawson’s Creek fan, his involvement might also be due to Thomas Kail, aka the director of Hamilton, co-producer of the Dawson’s Creek reunion, and husband to Michelle Williams. The three of them worked together on Fosse/Verdon, and the reunion is taking place at the theater in which Hamilton is currently playing.

When you think about it, it just makes sense!