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