As Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson reunite, here's why it might just heal millennials

Hark, do you hear it?

It's faint. Barely a whisper over the non-stop global catastrophes, two decades of unprecedented times, multiple economic downturns, robots, the realization we should already be saving for retirement, random joint pain and looming perimenopause.

It is the sound of elder millennials healing.

Late Monday, actor Katie Holmes announced on Instagram that she and fellow Dawson's Creek alum Joshua Jackson would be reuniting to film a three-part movie called Happy Hours. Not only will this be the first time they've worked together in more than 20 years — and not only is Holmes writing and directing — but the pair will be playing on-screen love interests.

"Working with Josh after so many years is a testament to friendship," Holmes wrote on Instagram.

Cue an entire generation feeling their feelings, especially as photos have started to emerge of the duo filming in New York City — laughing together, Holmes with that same old Joey face scrunch, Jackson with that confident Pacey smirk.

"Friends I regret to inform you that I am unable to be normal about this," one fan wrote on Instagram's threads Tuesday.

"You know you triggered an entire generation with this post," someone else said in response to Holmes' Instagram post.

"Elder Millennial minds are exploding right now," commented another.

To understand why this reunion means so much to people of, er, a certain age, we need to take you back to a simpler time. Arguably a better time, when we gathered around the television on Tuesday and Wednesday nights to watch a bunch of hot, unusually self-aware teenagers come of age and find love in a cosy seaside town.

From 1998 to 2003, teen television drama Dawson's Creek had an absolute chokehold on millennials, their collective hearts captured by a series-spanning love triangle involving girl-next-door Joey (played by Holmes) and troubled Pacey (played by Jackson).

You were either Team Pacey (and correct) or Team Dawson, the eternal optimist played by James Van Der Beek.

In the end, after much heartache and angst, Joey and Pacey wind up together — and in the final tear-jerking montage, quite literally, and somehow not cheesily, sail off into the sunset.

The love triangle became the central momentum of the show, and many viewers followed that journey at the same time that they were coming of age from teens to young adults themselves, said Zorianna Zurba, a pop culture expert and professor at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto.

"To see that charisma and that bond 20 years later, in part I think it conjures up all that hope that we had for them, and plus maybe that hope we had for ourselves as we were all struggling with our early relationships," Zurba told CBC News.

"I think that potentiality, and that sort of hope for the future, is maybe what is the healing part of it for millennials. It's that finally we're being given something to hope for. Something that is uplifting, that is a possibility."

Other experts have suggested "narrative psychology" is why we're so invested in this journey. According to the American Psychological Association, this is the idea that people's experiences and memories are shaped by stories.

"Once the narrative ends, part of us wants that story to continue.... This satisfies our brain's desire for narrative closure and continuity," psychotherapist Dana Moinian told Harper's Bazaar in a story published Wednesday.

The synopsis for Happy Hours, posted to IMDB, could be considered music to Team Pacey's ears.

"Former sweethearts cross paths years later and rekindle their connection, balancing careers, family duties and personal dreams while rediscovering what they once had — and what they could become."

The feature film trilogy is a "character-driven dramedy," according to Deadline. Production for the first film is kicking off this summer in New York City.

While there's certainly a nostalgia element at play, millennials — who are generally approaching middle age and no longer the main focus of pop culture — are craving representation, Zurba said.

A few recent hits, like Netflix's Nobody Wants This, have also leaned into this market with romance stories for people in their 30s and 40s.

But the current excitement is likely only partially about the project itself. As many fans have pointed out, Holmes and Jackson — who briefly dated in real life during production of Dawson's Creek — are both currently single. Canadian-born Jackson and actor Jodie Turner-Smith divorced in 2023. Holmes and actor Tom Cruise divorced in 2012.

"I think the potential for two divorcees with children to come back together after 20 years apart gives us that kind of reflection of where we're at, culturally, and also a nice twist on an old classic," Zurba said.

"It's that potential for a happily ever after."