‘Welcome to Wrexham’: Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on Getting Vulnerable, Rejuvenating a City and Gearing Up for Dramatic Season 2

variety.com:

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were taking on ownership of Wrexham AFC — a historic football club then playing in the fifth division of the English football system, nestled in a modest working-class community in northeast Wales — certainly qualified as a shocker.

Comparatively, it was less surprising to later learn that the two were also creating a docuseries chronicling their maiden voyage as chairmen of the club, with camera crews following Wrexham’s 2021-22 season as the team attempted to secure promotion into the upper rungs of English football for the first time in well over a decade.

What was surprising, however, was realizing that the docuseries in question, FX’s “Welcome to Wrexham,” is only obliquely the story of two Hollywood stars bumbling into the world of football.    “If you’re just reading the headlines, you probably think, ‘Oh, this show is going to be funny,’” Reynolds says. “It’s gonna be a fish-out-of-water story about two schmucky showbiz morons going in, falling on their asses, learning as they go.

But the show literally does not center us. It centers the town.”  Executive producing the series with Boardwalk Pictures and others, Reynolds and McElhenney largely ceded the spotlight to Wrexham itself, following players, coaches, pub owners, long-suffering fans and community members as they adjust to the unexpected media attention, share their stories of disappointment and resilience, and gradually start to believe that both the team and the town have a chance at something better.