Do you know the first thing about running a football club? No? Well, neither did Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Rob McElhenney (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), but that didn’t stop them from purchasing the 5th tier Red Dragons (the Wrexham football club, from Wales) because they felt a connection to the team’s underdog journey. And now FX will tell that story with Welcome to Wrexham, a docuseries starring Reynolds and McElhenney that is set to premiere next month.
The series follows the Wrexham Red Dragons, a struggling team in the National League that occupied the 5th tier of the English Football League and is also known as the oldest professional football club in the world. The team was purchased by Reynolds and McElhenney via their RR McReynolds Company LLC banner in November 2020, and they were officially named the owners of the club in February 2021. As the trailer reveals, Reynolds and McElhenney didn’t exactly know what they were doing when they decided to brave the challenge, but they felt a connection to the team’s history.
Also revealed by the trailer is the way that the Wrexham team is related to the town that shares its name. As one person states, the thing that people from Wrexham love more than anything is their football club. The docuseries will show that team’s history is directly associated with the town's inhabitants, and their trajectory reflects Wrexham's constant struggle against unfavorable odds to survive.
Welcome to Wrexham is set to play out like a Hollywood story, and not only because of the Hollywood stars involved: Just by the trailer, you can feel the deep involvement of the Wrexham people with the team and how they worry about what two Yankees can do with their precious little sports baby. At the same time, the underdog story immediately sparks attention, as it reminds viewers of excellent titles like Moneyball, The Damned United, and even Ted Lasso – all of which chronicle a love for sports that transcends championships.
FX premieres Welcome to Wrexham with back-to-back episodes on August 24. On the next day, you’ll be able to stream it on Hulu. You can watch the trailer below:
Check out the official synopsis here:
In 2020, Rob and Ryan teamed up to purchase the 5th tier Red Dragons in the hopes of turning the club into an underdog story the whole world could root for. The worry? Rob and Ryan have no experience in football or working with each other. From Hollywood to Wales, from the pitch to the locker room, the front office to the pub, Welcome to Wrexham will track Rob and Ryan’s crash course in football club ownership and the inextricably connected fates of a team and a town counting on two actors to bring some serious hope and change to a community that could use it.