Will Wrexham’s Hollywood fairytale end in heartbreak?

Wrexham’s Hollywood dream seems almost too good to be true. The club spent years in the doldrums of England’s Football League, its lack of success on the pitch matched by financial troubles off it. In 2004, the club plunged into the relegation zone after it was placed into administration. A few years later, in 2008, the side even dropped out of the league altogether. But then, in 2020, two handsome saviors arrived — and now the club’s troubles appear to be over.

There’s something uncomfortable about two rich Hollywood guys larping around with British working-class culture

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who made their fame and fortune starring in films such as Deadpool (Reynolds) and the TV series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (McElhenney), are model owners. They put their hands in their pockets to pay for players and have vowed to fork out to develop the club’s worn-out ground. Wrexham has now been promoted and is linked with ex-Real Madrid star — and Wales’s greatest ever footballer — Gareth Bale (even if he subsequently scotched reports that he would join). Reynolds and McElhenney join supporters in the pub, doing shots and putting cash behind the bar for fans to celebrate their team’s success. “They just come across as really nice blokes,” according to one fan. 

But what happens when the cameras stop rolling? Welcome to Wrexham has been a huge hit for Hulu. The docuseries, which has charted the rise and rise of Wrexham, is particularly popular in the United States: some Americans now include a trip to Wrexham’s Turf Hotel pub, which has appeared on the show, on their itinerary during their vacation to the UK. This summer, a US tour has been mooted to North Carolina, so that Wrexham’s new fan base can see their side in the flesh. 

Yet watching the show, and seeing the glossy viral videos shared online, it’s easy to wonder where real life ends and the fiction begins. Wrexham’s promotion from the National League is a scriptwriters’ dream: but are McElhenney and Reynolds in it for the love of “football” — or do they see themselves as TV producers who have hit on a winning formula? 

Welcome to Wrexham is not the only show that has brought soccer to a new audience; it is one of a spate of docuseries that have sprung up in recent years. Premier League teams, such as Manchester City and Arsenal, have their own shows. Fans, desperate for behind-the-scenes glimpses of their favorite players, can’t get enough of them.

But these programs have a snag: they offer a depiction of reality that like all reality TV is at best stylized. Football clubs have enormous PR operations — they are, in some cases, billion-dollar companies after all — and these shows are an extension of that. It can all be entertaining: McElhenney himself was reportedly a fan of the show Sunderland ’Til I Die, which he binge-watched before he bought Wrexham. But what you see in these programs is not always what you get: the sad truth is that these glossy shows are often tightly controlled by the clubs themselves, who choose what you do — and don’t — see. 

It isn’t only football docuseries, such as All or Nothing, that are proving popular for the streaming giants: Apple TV+’s top hit is Ted Lasso, a show that tells the tale of a US manager who knows nothing about soccer drafted in to rescue AFC Richmond. It has been a commercial success, even if Ted Lasso has all the subtlety of a kids’ TV show: the characters are exaggerated and ridiculous; the storylines obvious; the “baddies” pantomime-esque. But the popularity of it means that the streaming giants are hungry for more soccer content.

Welcome to Wrexham plugs a similar gap in the market: feel-good transatlantic sports content. And no doubt Wrexham deserves some cheer: unemployment in the town is high and morale is low. Parts of Wrexham rank among Wales’s most deprived areas. So why be cynical? Because reality TV appetites change. 

Reynolds and McElhenney both seem charming — but it’s hard not to keep asking yourself: what are they doing here? The pair look like two lost tourists who are bemused and flattered by the admiration in which locals hold them in. It’s all a bit of a joke, which is fine. They will snap selfies and banter with fans but, one day, they will return home. Yet there’s something uncomfortable about two rich Hollywood guys larping around with British working-class culture. For locals, Wrexham is home; for Reynolds and McElhenney, the post-industrial town makes a great set for a heartening TV series.

Reynolds and McElhenney are putting their money where their mouths are. Reynolds is said to have splashed out $1.8 million — loose change for a man like him — on a house in Wales to serve as a base for his family. It’s unlikely his glamorous wife Blake Lively, who lives with Reynolds in a multi-million dollar mansion in New York, is going to relocate any time soon. 

But a question hovers nervously over this rags-to-riches tale: would they be in Wrexham if there were no TV series? 

For now, the club is wallowing in footballing glory: 10,000 supporters turn up for home games. A new series of Welcome to Wrexham has been commissioned. Reynolds and McElhenney have reportedly lost nearly $4 million getting them there. Will they keep forking out? Or, if ratings plunge, might they lose interest? 

As Reynolds put it when he first arrived: “The biggest challenge was the community going ‘what the fuck are these two guys doing here?”’ Wrexham supporters soon came to adore their Hollywood heroes; but, as any scriptwriter will tell you, a second series is hard — and Wrexham’s success on the pitch is unlikely to last forever. A soccer show about a mid-table team struggling to break away out of mediocrity isn’t quite the same draw for audiences. And it’s not difficult to see why people might soon switch off. If so, Wrexham’s fairytale story could have an unhappy ending.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.