We’ve got to get out of this f***ing league,” Wrexham AFC co-owner Ryan Reynolds says at the end of Welcome to Wrexham’s first series, which sees his newly acquired football club languishing in the National League, five whole tiers below the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United. His team finished just a few points off promotion to the highly coveted English Football League (EFL), the first big step in the ascent of professional English football. The beauty of a documentary series that trails behind reality is, of course, that we know Wrexham do make it out of “this f***ing league”, in events that will be shown in the FX series’ second run, out on Disney Plus in the UK on 13 September. The football club, which is nestled just over the Welsh side of the Wales-England border, near Cheshire, got its Hollywood ending this year when it was finally promoted to League Two, ending 15 years of EFL exile for its devoted fans.
The club’s historic comeback was overseen by Deadpool’s Reynolds and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney, who purchased Wrexham in November 2020 for £2m. The two actors have since pumped significant sums of their Hollywood earnings (or in Reynolds’ case, his $610m gin company sale) into rejuvenating the club’s historic Racecourse Ground and making record fee player signings such as Paul Mullin and Ollie Palmer. The real stars of the show aren’t on the pitch or in the boardroom, though. They’re in the stands.
