Steven Spielberg Joins Star-Studded Dawson’s Creek Reunion — You Won’t Believe Who Else Showed Up

Dawson's Creek got the reunion treatment, and it was a little surreal in the best way: most of the original cast on a Broadway stage, a surprise Spielberg cameo, and Lin-Manuel Miranda stepping in as Dawson. The twist? James Van Der Beek was sidelined at the last minute.

What went down

On September 23, 2025, the cast and crew gathered at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York for a live reading of the show's 1998 pilot. The night doubled as a fundraiser for F Cancer and for James Van Der Beek, who is battling colorectal cancer. Renée Elise Goldsberry narrated the reading, and Miranda filled in as Dawson after Van Der Beek had to bow out.

• On stage: Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, John Wesley Shipp, Mary Beth Peil, Mary-Margaret Humes, Meredith Monroe, Kerr Smith, Busy Philipps, and Nina Repeta

Van Der Beek was originally set to be there, but he posted on Instagram that he had come down with two stomach viruses and would not make it. He also let fans know Miranda would be stepping into the lead for the night. He added that he had been looking forward to this for months — Michelle Williams started planning the whole thing back in January.

Van Der Beek still showed up — on screen

Two video messages from Van Der Beek bookended the reading. In the first, he made it clear how much he hated missing this chance to be with everyone in the room:

'I wanted to stand on that stage and thank every single person in this theater for being here tonight.'

In his second message, he got a little nerdy in a very Dawson way, comparing the character's brand of yearning to 'The Phantom of the Opera' — noting that nobody in their right mind would choose either path, and both run headfirst into unrequited love. He even dropped the line 'Go to him. Go to him now before I change my mind.' Only one of those winds up as a crying-face meme, of course. Then he tossed it to Norm Lewis, who came out and sang 'The Music of the Night.'

And then Spielberg popped in

Because this reunion needed one more meta layer, Steven Spielberg — the guy Dawson idolizes on the show — made a surprise appearance via video message:

'Dawson, you made it. Maybe someday, I will get to have a Dawson's closet.'

Quick refresher

For anyone who somehow missed the late-90s TV wave: Dawson's Creek was created by Kevin Williamson and ran on The WB from January 1998 to May 2003. It quickly became one of the network's defining series, sitting alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 7th Heaven.

All told, it was a very inside-baseball, only-at-a-reunion kind of night: the original crew reading the pilot on a Broadway stage, Lin-Manuel Miranda pinch-hitting as Dawson, Norm Lewis singing Phantom, and Spielberg himself giving the nod. Weird? A little. Perfect for this show? Absolutely.