‘Dawson’s Creek’ Could Have Had a Completely Different Ending If Joshua Jackson Didn’t Have a Say

Joshua Jackson was the biggest cheerleader of the Dawson’s Creek relationship between his character Pacey and Katie Holmes’ Joey. Earlier this month, Jackson recounted to Entertainment Weekly how he advocated for the two to end up together.

When Kevin Williamson created Dawson’s Creek, he initially envisioned Joey and Dawson (James Van Der Beek) as the show’s endgame couple. However, Jackson saw things differently and felt it was important to advocate for Pacey and Joey’s coupling.

“I am the advocate! I was like ‘Hell no! No. No. No. That’s not gonna work for me.’ I had a whole conversation with Kevin [Williamson] about this,” Jackson told EW. “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.’”

Jackson was unsure whether he succeeded in convincing Williamson to follow that path until he received the final script. “[Kevin Williamson] only came back to write the finale,” Jackson recounts. “So, I knew whenever we got the finale script.” Van Der Beek said this was the right way to end the show during the 2018 EW Reunion with the cast: “It felt right to me. It seemed like it made more sense.”

Jackson said that he looked forward to scripts centered on the couple’s storyline. “I remember being most excited about the episode where Katie and I…it’s just the two of us, we’re stuck in a Walmart or something after hours. “In the sort of slug of doing television, it was so nice for her and I to have the opportunity to get the script ahead of time and then be able to really work on it and have that playtime together. So that’s the one that really sticks out in my memory,” he recalled.

Dawson’s Creek fans are passionate about what’s happening on the show because, as Jackson said, “the themes are universal.” He explained, “even though times have changed and technology has, humanity hasn’t.” “I think when our show was at its best was talking about the universal experiences that we all have at that time of our life.” Jackson said, “You know, dealing with friends, dealing with family, falling in love, falling out of love. What is my future? Who am I? Why am I? What’s going on? Ahhhh! All that stuff.”

Dawson’s Creek ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2003 and featured Michelle Williams, Mary-Margaret Humes, John Wesley Shipp, Mary Beth Peil, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith, Meredith Monroe, and Busy Philipps in season 5. Jackson has previously rejected the possibility of a Dawson’s Creek revival.

“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.”