Dawson's Creek's highly anticipated reunion will not include James Van Der Beek, who will skip the event due to "two stomach viruses".
Sharing the unfortunate update on his Instagram account on Sunday night, September 21, the actor, who portrayed Dawson on the WB show for its six-season run from 1998 to 2003, revealed that Lin-Manuel Miranda will replace him for the one-night live reading of the pilot script.
The Monday live event, which will benefit the organisation F Cancer, is set to feature original stars, including Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams, Kerr Smith, Mary Beth Peil, Meredith Monroe, John Wesley Shipp and Busy Phillips.
James, who revealed his Stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis last year, penned in an emotional post that the event was something he was "looking forward to MOST", adding, "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."
Van Der Beek continued, "Despite every effort… I won't get to be there. I won't get to stand on that stage and thank every soul in the theatre for showing up for me, and against cancer, when I needed it most."
While announcing his understudy, the Varsity Blues star described Miranda as "a ridiculously overqualified replacement who would have been #1 on my wishlist (had I ever dreamed he'd be available)."
He concluded his social media post expressing his gratitude to the mastermind behind Hamilton, "And thank you @lin_manuel. You were a hero to my kids before… now you’re a demigod."
James Van Der Beek was diagnosed in August 2023 and shared the news publicly in November 2024, revealing that his cancer was detected via colonoscopy.
