Ryan Reynolds drops 'Welcome to Wrexham' trailer that shows how he helped revitalize Wrexham FC

You may have raised an eyebrow in 2020 when you learned that Canadian superstar Ryan Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenney teamed up to buy a small, struggling Welsh football club called Wrexham AFC. What exactly do Deadpool and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia want with a team and town that are so far removed from Hollywood?

Last year, we kind of got a hint at their motives, when they announced they were going to essentially Ted Lasso the team and the town with a new FX docuseries called Welcome to Wrexham, and now we’re getting our first glimpse at the trailer, which depicts just how much work they put into putting Wrexham on the map.

In the trailer, we see the Free Guy star and It’s Always Sunny… creator taking questions from reporters and Wrexham residents alike as to why they wanted to make the purchase in the first place. A young Welsh boy says, “What me and my dad thought was, because Wrexham’s red, and Deadpool’s red…”

To which the ever-funny Ryan interjects, “That’s the real reason,  sorry.”

The trailer then shows how small Wrexham the town really is, and how the community is often struggling, with the football club sometimes the centre of their hopes and dreams. Ryan and Rob tour the city, and the football club’s locker room and gym, which prompt them to almost put their head in their hands at the sorry state of the facilities. 

“Yeah, this needs a little work,” Rob exclaims.

Set to the tune of Elvis Presley’s mega-hit, “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” which is also the very tune Wrexham footie fans chant from the rafters, we see Rob and Ryan attempting to revitalize the club and the community, so that this little club that could might actually, as they say in the trailer, have “the biggest day in the history of the town.”

“It’s not life or death,” we hear. “It’s more important than that.”

If you have goosebumps, you’re not alone. Ryan shared the trailer to his official Twitter account this morning, captioning it, “No pressure.” It has already amassed over 13,000 likes and scores of replies from fans anxious to fall in love with Wrexham.

Wrexham, the oldest football club in Wales, has been fan-owned since 2011, and it is estimated that Ryan and Rob collectively dropped around $2.5 million USD on the purchase. The team currently competes in the fifth tier of English football, which is the lowest division, and in 2022, they went to Wembley stadium to compete in the FA Trophy Final.

Welcome to Wrexham debuts on August 24.