Katie & Josh: One of the Xennials

Not sure about you but the group chat was popping off yesterday over Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson, Joey and Pacey, together again after all these years. Because while we do get the Dawson’s Creek reunions in one or two combinations here and there (most recently Josh was with Busy Philipps at an event), especially Busy and Michelle Williams, Joey and Pacey were the show’s OTP. In the pop culture hearts of two generations, Gen X and Millennial, Xennials, these two MEAN SOMETHING. 

Katie and Josh know it too and they used that nostalgia to make their announcement yesterday: they’re working together on a new movie that Katie is directing. The film will also star Mary-Louise Parker and Constance Wu, among others, and per Deadline:

“Happy Hours is described as a story about two people (Jackson and Holmes) navigating their relationship within the challenges of careers and family responsibilities and the pursuit of love, despite life’s inevitable obstacles. It’s a character-driven dramedy that explores the emotional journey of young loves who reconnect as adults, with the connective thread of shared joys, loss, and hope.”

Well the casting couldn’t be more perfect because, obviously, this is art imitating life. Katie and Josh dated early on during the DC run and of course went on to other experiences over the next 25 years. And now they’re giving us all this grown-up been through it rom-com energy, sending everyone into a f-cking spiral. A good spiral, for a change. As Duana texted me last night, “If they wind up as endgame, maybe everything will be OK”. LOL FOREVER. 

And she was basically squealing, as someone who is not usually a squealer. But this is the effect these two in particular, from that show in particular, have on our cohort in particular. Even the WAY the news was fed to us was by us and for us….

Those pap shots, very clearly staged pap shots. Because as I texted back to Duana, “these shots are exactly right …we didn’t have f-cking Instagram or TikTok as a launchpad – this is how they did it and how we consumed it back then, children”. 

Playing the PR game circa 1997-2005 for their big reveal is smart, it hit us right in our hearts. It catered to the audience who would feel it the most, who would believe it the most. And then serving up an official photo that’s giving portrait studio from the 2000s looking the way they do now, with understandable collagen loss but still great skin and bone structure and even better hair? WE WIN.

Katie Holmes is set to reunite with ‘Dawson Creek’ co-star Joshua Jackson in ‘HAPPY HOURS,’ a new feature film trilogy that she will write, direct and star in.

Described as a story about two people navigating their relationship within the challenges of careers and family… pic.twitter.com/EdvmJnw0Et

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) July 21, 2025

And we can add them to our ever-growing list of romances in the summer of 2025. Right now, for Katie and Josh, it’s onscreen romance, which still counts. But, like, the timing… the TIMING. This is the classic “second chance romance” trope come to life. It just, you know, has to really actually come to life.   

 

We are, of course, Squawking Katie and Josh today. Join us!  (App link here)