Fans flood social media with Dawson Leery clips as James Van Der Beek tributes surge—iconic scenes resurface overnight

Fans flooded social media overnight into Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, sharing clips of James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery—bringing back monologues, tearful breakups, and hallway confrontations from the late-1990s teen drama that made him a household name. The wave followed news that Van Der Beek died Wednesday, Feb. 11, at age 48, after a public battle with colorectal cancer.

By early Thursday morning in the U.S., short video edits and scene compilations dominated trending entertainment feeds, with many posts pairing Dawson’s most earnest lines with captions about growing up alongside the series.

A character that shaped a TV era

Dawson Leery was written as a sensitive, ambitious outsider—an aspiring filmmaker who narrated adolescence with a mix of sincerity and overthinking that became instantly recognizable. That voice helped define a particular kind of late-’90s teen storytelling: talky, emotional, and unafraid of big feelings.

In the clips now circulating, fans are gravitating toward scenes that show Dawson in transition—moving from idealism to disappointment, from certainty to doubt. The resurfaced moments highlight how Van Der Beek played the character with open-faced intensity, even when the scripts leaned maximalist. For many viewers, that commitment is exactly what made the show feel personal at the time.

The scenes fans keep reposting

The first wave focused on “Dawson as narrator” moments—opening and closing sequences where he tries to make sense of friendship, first love, and betrayal. As the tribute trend spread, the most shared clips widened to include:

• Dawson’s emotional arguments with Joey and Pacey

• Quiet, reflective scenes that show him processing loss or change

• Early-season moments where his optimism still feels intact

The emphasis isn’t only nostalgia. Many posts frame the clips as proof of craft—Van Der Beek’s timing in long dialogue runs, his ability to pivot from humor to heartbreak, and the way he anchored scenes that could have tipped into melodrama.

Tributes extend beyond “Dawson’s Creek”

While Dawson Leery is the focal point of the overnight surge, tributes also reference Van Der Beek’s later career turns—especially roles where he leaned into self-parody and showed comedic range. Fans have been sharing clips that underline how he avoided being boxed in as a teen idol, taking projects that played against the earnestness that first made him famous.

That broadened lens is part of what has made the tribute wave feel unusually cross-generational. Older fans are revisiting the original series, while younger audiences—many of whom discovered the show years later—are encountering Dawson’s scenes in the fast, remix-friendly style of today’s online viewing.

Cancer disclosure changed the public context

Van Der Beek publicly disclosed a stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis in late 2024, after keeping details private for a period while undergoing treatment. In the wake of his death, many posts have connected the emotional openness of his signature role with the way he spoke about illness—focusing on family, time, and resilience without turning the story into spectacle.

That context has also prompted a noticeable spike in public health messaging alongside the tributes, including reminders about screening and symptom awareness. The discussion remains largely personal rather than political: fans describing how they watched Dawson navigate big life turns, then watched the actor address a real-life fight with similar candor.

What happens next: a renewed look at the series

The immediate effect of the tribute surge is a fresh wave of watching and rewatching. The longer-term effect may be a reassessment of the series’ place in TV history—and of Van Der Beek’s performance as something more than an era-specific teen icon.

Two things will likely drive the next phase of attention. First is the volume of cast and industry remembrances, which tend to broaden the story beyond one show and into a fuller portrait of a career. Second is the natural way iconic scenes circulate after a major loss: the internet picks a handful of moments as “definitive,” then returns to them repeatedly as shorthand for what the person meant to audiences.

For now, the story is being told the way fans tell stories best—through the scenes they remember by heart, shared again in the span of a single night.

Sources consulted: Associated Press, People, Entertainment Weekly, Variety