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Joshua Jackson may have been the ultimate Joey and Pacey shipper.
Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson initially viewed Joey (Katie Holmes) and Dawson (James Van Der Beek) as the show’s endgame couple — that is, until Jackson made it clear he had another vision in mind. In fact, the now-43-year-old actor says he fought to ensure Pacey would end up with Joey.
“I am the advocate!” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I was like ‘Hell no! No. No. No. That’s not gonna work for me.’ I had a whole conversation with Kevin about this. Like, ‘Look, I get it. This is the idea that you had in your head, but I’m just gonna ask you to watch the tale of the tape and this is the more interesting end for these characters.'”
RELATED: The Stars of Dawson’s Creek: Where Are They Now?
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Jackson didn’t learn of the pair’s fate until he received the script for the sixth and final season’s last episode, which saw Holmes’ character make her final decision, which originally saw her leaving for New York with Dawson.
“[Kevin Williamson] only came back to write the finale,” Jackson said. “So, I knew whenever we got the finale script.”
Fortunately for Jackson, Van Der Beek shared his feelings about Joey and Pacey.
“It felt right to me,” he said during the cast’s 2018 reunion with Entertainment Weekly. “It seemed like it made more sense.”
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Dawson’s Creek ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2003. Michelle Williams, Mary-Margaret Humes, John Wesley Shipp, Mary Beth Peil, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe were also in the cast. Busy Philipps joined in season 5.
Previously, Jackson shut down the chances of a Dawson’s Creek revival series.
“It’s been a very long time, and I think, for anybody who was a fan of Dawson’s, to actually see the four of us on camera again might be a little bit shocking and kinda heartbreaking,” he said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016. “We’re not cute kids anymore. I mean, we’re holding up okay, but I think if you put the four of us now next to the four of us then, it might be a little shocking.”
Jackson also dismissed the chances of an unscripted, all-cast reunion like HBO’s 2021 Friends reunion special on HBO Max.
“I think because the Friends cast were already adults when they were doing the show, it’s less jarring to see them now,” he told The Guardian in September 2021. “If you put our mid-40s selves together on a couch now, with our creaking backs, it might shock people.”
