FX original documentary Welcome to Wrexham premiered Wednesday August 24, 2022.
#WelcometoWrexham is available on Hulu.
rottentomatoes: 90%
metacritic: 75
imdb: 8.3
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney drop $3 milli on a football team outside of Wrexham, Wales.
“Oh, wow! Come on, now. Now, that’s a stadium. Wow.” — Ryan Reynolds
“Yeah, I mean, that’s part of the anxiety. Like, watching the team lose last night, you’re thinking the investment in this club just took a hit. Oh, that’s my usual story. That’s usually the story in my head. Yeah. Fuck that. Yeah. It’s gonna work.” — Ryan Reynolds
“What the fuck? In a PG-13 movie like this, you get one ‘fuck,’ two ‘shits,’ and a glass of white wine, and then you say, ‘hang on to your PG-13 rating.'” — Ryan Reynolds
“I grew up in a working-class family, and I have three older brothers. My father struggled in a number of different ways. My dad started as a cop, then became a food broker, which sounds like a cover for a CIA agent or something, but that was his actual job.” — Ryan Reynolds
“Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, the main place I got validation from my father– like, if I was good at sports, in my father’s eyes, I was doing all right. So I played sports long past the point where I was, like, really driven to play sports. Yeah.” — Ryan Reynolds
“It carried on, it carried on all through show business, all that, so, you know, it’s like an unquenchable thirst for validation. My father’s been dead for years, but, like, it’s, you know, you kind of– stuff doesn’t really go away. It’s easier to sort of think of him, you know, the way I’m describing him, as, like, a really hard-ass. He would have thought all of this was wild. Like, you know, he didn’t really see any of the stuff Deadpool forward, so I think he would have thought this was all pretty crazy.” — Ryan Reynolds
“So, you know, we created a proposal and really and made sure that we conveyed to the community our intentions. Mm-hmm. No. People know where to find us. This is a very high-profile thing with a lot at stake, and we really don’t want to let them down, and I think we can speak to that. I don’t know that we can necessarily speak so much to, ‘you have to trust us,’ ’cause then it feels a little Harold Hill to me. And I feel like– yeah. Great. I will, uh– I will see you soon. Bye.” — Ryan Reynolds
“Sweating. I think I just want to start by ripping the Band-Aid off and addressing the fact that this is all pretty… pretty wild. I’m sure it’s got to be a little disconcerting that a Canadian and an American are so interested in your club, but we want to assure everyone on this call that we are taking this ventures very seriously.” — Ryan Reynolds
“I don’t care if you’re a movie star. I don’t care if you’re driving a forklift. When you’re in a situation where you’re seeking the approval of other people, your brain is always going, ‘they’re gonna say no. They don’t– they’re on to me.’ Imposter syndrome is in full effect. Should the majority of the supporters decide that we’re the guys for the job, we would be honored and thrilled, and we would never, ever once take that lightly. We will laugh at ourselves, but we will never laugh at the situation. Thank you. Appreciate it.” — Ryan Reynolds
“I thought that went very, very well. You know what was one of my favorite parts was when they asked and you could see the giant camera behind you… filming. Yes. Yes, so I was so glad you were like– right away, you were like, ‘oh, yeah, hell, yeah, we’re doing a documentary.’ I was like, ‘yeah, we’re making a documentary, like, right this fucking second.’ I can see a gigantic– is that an IMAX camera? Like, what the fuck?” — Ryan Reynolds
“I have actual butterflies right now. Wow. Wow. Thank you.” — Ryan Reynolds
“Oh, guys, you’re gonna need a bigger crew for this. Oh, God. It’s so weird to see you without the Disney princess filter. Yes, on your Zoom. Oh, my God. How’s it going? Right, see, this is why it was just meant to be. I’m going with the Clubber Lang body, no. No, not with your 6-inch lifts. No.” — Ryan Reynolds
“My name is Ryan Reynolds. And earlier this year we became owners of a football club in Wrexham, and we thought it was only appropriate four our Welsh fans to have a translator. Getting Wrexham out of the National League and into the EFL is– is the goal. Then it really is about putting Wrexham on a world stage and build this team, and it’s an underdog story, and that’s something I love. What the fuck was that? She’s looking at you like…” — Ryan Reynolds
Rob McElhenney
“Thank you, guys. Thank you, gents. Sorry, guys.”
“Wow. I don’t think the goosebumps are ’cause it’s cold. I’m just thinking how many thousands of people have come to watch these games over the last 150 years.”
“So there is a real risk for us. Yes. And there is a version of the story… where we are villains… where it doesn’t– yeah. It doesn’t work, and then we go, ‘what are we gonna do? We have to sell it.’ And then we’re the bad guys. Fuck that.”
“I’m from Philadelphia, and I’ve always been a sports fanatic. I couldn’t play anything, but I always love watching it. My whole family loved the Eagles. It was just something that was a part of my life from the time I can remember. The team becomes an extension of the city.”
“Whoo! Whoo! Even as a kid, I just remember that gave me something to identify with. I grew up in South Philadelphia… on the corner of Moyamensing and Dickinson. The Philadelphia that I know and the Philadelphia as it identifies itself, are people who work really hard for everything that they have.”
“Oh, my God. This is incredible. Oh, my God. This is crazy! This is all exactly the same. Like, nothing has been changed. So, Leo… what would it be like to share this room… with your brother? Yeah. Like, it would be, like this exact room. You would? You want an iPod?”
“One of the things that was really attractive about Wrexham is, even though I’ve never been there, the town reminds me of Philadelphia. It’s a working-class town. It’s a blue-collar town. It’s a town that has had its ups and down, and they haven’t had all the opportunities that a lot of other people have had. I feel like I know those people. I grew up with those people. I am one of those people.”
“Humphrey, what are the rules? My mind was racing when I learned about the English system. The idea that you can get promoted into a league above you and demoted and kicked out of the league is incredible. And then I called Humphrey, and I was like, ‘if you had a club that had an infrastructure that could at least support an even-ing of the balance sheet, can’t you theoretically take a team that’s in the lowest league and bring them to the top?’ Goal! He said, ‘yes.'”
“But as I started to gather more and more information, I realized how expensive it was going to be. I have TV money, but as I started to look at how expensive it actually was to run a club, I realized that I needed something more than TV money. I needed… movie-star money. More than that, I needed superhero movie-star money. More than that probably, as we ascended up the leagues, I would need alcohol-baron money. And mobile-phone-services money, and… what other companies does this bitch have? Cybersecurity money. And– anybody? What else has he got?”
“Ryan’s FaceTiming me. Hey, you look great. Yeah. I know. It’s just constantly– he seems insecure. I don’t really know Ryan that well. I’ve never met him in person before this. We met through social media and then just became friends.”
“In terms of trust, they have been burned before by shady people. But we’re not some shady businessmen that can just, like, if this goes south, like, lurk into the shadows and pretend like it never happened and just go back to our lives. Yes, yes. At stake today is whether or not we get to become the next stewards of Wrexham Football Club. So if it goes south, then we won’t. Yeah, great. Great. All right. Awesome. All right. Ah, he got the last word in. Fuck. I got to–“
“When I tell people that the Eagles winning the Super Bowl was one of the greatest days of my life– it was top five greatest days of my life… that’s it! They got it! People who are supporters of clubs and sporting fans across the world know exactly what I’m talking about, and I mean it. I put it up there with the birth of my children and my wedding day not because of what happened on the field, but because of what it meant to an entire community of people and to my relationships with my friends and my family members and the entire city of Philadelphia. I really believe that we can build something like that, and I want to be there for that. I want to be a part of that, and I hope that you will allow us to help you achieve something like that.”
“There you go. And now it’s in the people’s hands. Yeah. Oh, for real? Well, what the fuck? That’s your responsibility.”
“Hello. Oh, yeah. Yep. I’m no longer on camera, so… wow.”
“Is Ryan here? Typical. The power dynamic begins. Ryan and I have never met in person, but we did buy a football team together. Maybe not the smartest thing to do. Looks fine. Oh, hi. Oh, my. I know. What do you think? Good. How about you? This– I think we’re wearing– this is similar colors. He’s not that tall. Wow. What? Well, yeah.”
“Hello, my name is Rob McElhenney. Wow. I don’t know, man. Did you hire– who hired her? Looking at me?”
Humphrey Ker
“Yes, yes, yes. Not bad, right? Yeah.”
“Well, the rules are our team’s trying to put the ball in your goal. You’re trying to put it in our goal. That’s really all you need to know right now.”
“Rob is a new convert to the charms and joys of football. Rob and I have worked together and we’re friends. I watch quite a lot of football in the writers’ room during our lunch breaks. Rob started to be like, ‘what is this? Why are you obsessed with this stupid game?'”
“The English professional football system, or pyramid, consists of four tiers. The Premier League at the top of the pyramid, that’s the créme de la créme of football where you’ve got your Chelseas, Manchester Uniteds. And one tier down from that, you’ve got the Championship, then League One and League Two. So the father up the pyramid you are, the better the talent, the bigger the prizes, and thus the more profitable your club becomes. Teams can move between tiers via promotion and relegation. At the end of the season, the best teams go up, and the worst teams go down. For the past 14 seasons, Wrexham have been playing here, below the pyramid, in the National League, the lowest level of professional football in England– the tiers below being semi-professional.”
“Being relegated to the National League is… a bit football purgatory. The wages are low. The prize money is low. It makes it very difficult for clubs like Wrexham that drop into it to get back into the English football league system. Imagine, if you will, the New York Yankees lose 150 games in a season. They finish dead last, and they have to drop down a league and the following year play against the likes of the Toledo Mud Hens and the Sacramento River Cats. And if they keep losing enough and they keep dropping leagues, then eventually they end up playing beer league softball in Ithaca or against fucking 12-year-olds in Williamsport.”
“All you two do is tell each other you look great. Why it’s such a successful friendship. Great. So that one should work, but as long as it’s not– yes, that should work. Today is the call to the Wrexham Supporters Trust. Because it is a club that is owned by the fans, we have to persuade them to vote us through by a 75-25 margin. It’s quite a high bar, but that was put in place ’cause it had terrible owners in place and so people wanted to make sure that if they were gonna vote for anyone, it was the right person. It is. Agreed.”
“The average salary for a Premier League footballer is about £ 3 1/2 million a year. A player in the National League will be making… a bit less.”
Spencer Harris
“A lot of people outside the UK aren’t even aware that Wales is not ein England. It’s a separate country. It’s on the west coast of the UK, and Wrexham’s a town of about 65,000 people in the northeast of Wales. Wrexham was a nice place to grow up. It was a really safe place where communities pull together. And of course, when I was growing up, we had a really good football team. As a child, my father took me to games, and I can remember back then, we were what is now known as the Championship or the level below the Premier League. It’s the third-oldest professional club in the world. It’s the oldest club in Wales, and it plays at the Cae Ras, or the Racecourse in English, which is the oldest international stadium still in use anywhere in the world. And for many, many years, Wrexham were Wales’ best club.”
“I’m a volunteer at the club, I joined the trust board nine years ago as Director, Wrexham AFC, and what I do is I manage the budget. I organize all board meetings, all agendas. I tend to be the person who deals with media and more or less the face of the club from a business side. I’ve got a really big day job for a multinational company, which means I work long hours anyway during the week. And at weekends, I’ve given everything to the football club that I can. I’ve prioritized it over career advancement, over family. This season, it’s been very, very challenging, given global pandemic. We weren’t allowed to have supporters in the stadium, which was the main source of income for the football club.”
“In my view, getting out of the national league is the hardest job in world football. And I think if the club wants to get out of the National League, it needs to change. If Rob and Ryan can bring that change, then fantastic.”
“Mustache is gone. Well, here we are, after what feels like an age, right? As you know, the threshold on the vote was high. So you needed to get a 75% or more of those voting for– for this to pass. The turnout was massive, right? 91.5% of people who could vote voted. On resolution one, it was a 98.6% for. On resolution two, it was a 98.4% for, and on resolution three, it was a 98.4% for, so… an overwhelming and resounding yes. So congratulations and really well done. ‘Llongyfarchiadau,’ we say in Wales. Really looking forward to the journey. When you wake up tomorrow, the announcement will be out there, and let the fun commence.”
“It’s not 100% in their control that they’re gonna get this club promoted, but if they do that, it will be one of the biggest days in the history of the town.”
Wayne Jones
“Doo-do-doo. All right, then, with all that said, what we going for? 2-nil? Dave-o, what do you think? Just can’t see us keeping ’em out. We just– we’re not confident. I think I’m gonna go 1-1. I hope I’m wrong but we just don’t score enough goals, do we?”
“Football changes, you know? If you go win three games on the bounce then we see a more positive spin on the customers on the Monday morning but if they lose it seems to like knock the lights out of so many people. This is just the most surreal year ever, COVID, Hollywood superstars taking over, I mean, the takeover’s an absolute godsend and I think with what’s going on in the world and the football not being great that’s just keeping people’s spirits up it’s a godsend, really.”
“Thank you very much. Oh, Rutherford’s dreadful. Don’t even talk about– so do postmen. But you wouldn’t put them on the wing, would ya? It’s dreadful.”
“The home of Wrexham Football Club– the Turf Hotel. The club was founded in this very building, which sits directly outside the main entrance to the grounds. On a match day we would be absolutely chocker. The bar is always five or six deep. My parents were regulars here, and I remember coming to this pub after the match and they’ve won. And the jukebox is blaring, and people are singing, and people are happy. And from that minute on, I was absolutely hooked.”
“We had the badge built into the wall. That was just my way of, you know, keeping the pub and the club connected. In my 13 years of being here, we’ve only ever closed one day. We open 365 days a year. We even open on Christmas Day and Christmas night, but like every other pub, we’ve been closed because of COVID. You can’t put into words what it means to people. You know, it’s almost like losing a limb, because people say it’s only a game, but it’s not. It’s more than that, you know? This football club means everything to people in this town. Anybody that you speak to will tell you it’s been a real difficult decade. The past owners that we’ve had– and are they here for the wrong reasons? So you still don’t allow yourself to believe that this could happen. But this set of supporters, this town, this community deserves a break.”
Shaun Pearson
“Wrexham– we’re the fifth tier of professional football. We are the bottom level of the professional game.”
“This club’s obviously been down in this league for a long time now, and as captain, I’d love to get to the end of my career and look back on being the one that led it back into the football league.”
Luke Young
“Professional football is everybody, whether you’re in the National League or Premier League, but there is a big difference in terms of lifestyle, money.”
Christian Dibble
“You tell people you’re a professional footballer, and instantly they think flash car, nice house, and it’s not. It’s not like that.”
“Yeah. Try getting called a ginger fucker.”
Rob Lainton
“A lot of times, you can actually hear someone calling you shit or… like I think I look good and I get called a fat bastard.”
Tyler French
“Even playing at this level and getting paid for it, is still living the dream. I know the dream is the top, but this is still a dream.”
Reece Hall-Johnson
“When you’re in the non-league, you’ve got to grind for everything, you got to work hard for everything, you got to pay for everything, but I think as a football– it’s the same game. You’re still playing football. You’re still enjoying it.”
Daniel Jarvis
“Promotion’s the goal. We want to win the league. We want to be the best team in the league by a mile.”
Jordan Davies
“Getting back into that fourth tier, the League Two, would be amazing for the club, ’cause if you get back into the fourth tier, you get a lot of funding from the football league.”
Paul Rutherford
“I’m really excited the takeover’s happening because they can improve the whole town as a collective in terms of the infrastructure of the town. You know, the stadium will likely improve.”
Brian Phillips
“Hello, everybody. I hope you can hear me okay. My name’s Brian Phillips, I’m the chair of Wrexham Supporters Trust, and I want to welcome members and our special guests to this very special presentation evenings. Please not…”
“Well, thank you, gentlemen, for your time this evening.”
James Harrison
“I would like to invite Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds on screen. They will talk to you through some key questions and their proposed takeover of Wrexham AFC. We’ll start with– if you could talk us through what yours and Rob’s vision for the club is if members decide to entrust it to you.”
“Rob, could you answer first? And I guess it’s the big question– why Wrexham AFC? Thank you, guys.”
Wrexham Board 2
“Hey, hey.”
Coach
“Face the ball, face the ball!”
Shawn Levy
“That– I mean– that was great.”
“Go back to, like– yeah, right there. Yeah. Here we go.”
Bob McElhenney
“Exactly the same. Yeah. And the best part about this house as the outhouse– an actual outhouse, ’cause they didn’t have downstairs plumbing. So if you were down here and you didn’t want to go upstairs, you just went outside to the outhouse.”
Leo McElhenney
“Ooh. Uh, is it this small? Honestly, if I could take this, I would. Who doesn’t?”
Bryn Law
“When I started watching Wrexham, we had a team of heroes in those days. Wrexham’s crowds could compare favorably with many clubs, even sometimes in top divisions in other countries of Europe. But by the very early ’80s, Wrexham became a very depressed town with incredibly high levels of unemployment. The football club was impacted by hard times as well. In a small place, the fortunes of the town and its team are inextricably intertwined. The two absolutely depend upon one another. Wrexham is a town that battles against odds constantly. It really is a place where people deserve a little bit more than maybe they’ve got out of life. But the thing that we love more than anything… is the football club.”
“Because of the pandemic, no fans coming into the ground to pay one of the major income stream– there’s no broadcast money at this level. It’s what comes in through the turnstiles is the major revenue raiser, and from March onwards, nobody’s been coming to football stadia so support the teams. So how are the clubs like Wrexham gonna survive? It’s an extremely uncertain future that Wrexham was looking at. So the takeover, from Wrexham’s perspective, the timing was– could not have been better.”
Kaitlin Olson
“Yeah, Mom.”
Rob’s Mom
“Where am I going?”
Rob’s Family
“The goal.”
Wrexham Fan 3
“If we get an early goal, 2-nil, Wrexham. If we get an early goal.”
Wrexham Fan 4
“I’ll go 1-nil.”
Wrexham Fan 5
“We have a bit of negativity on a certain player called Rutherford.”
Wrexham Fan 6
“It’s surreal innit? We’re still in shock. We’ve just been through the mill so much over the last twelve, thirteen years. And this, well, is just gonna get the town bouncing.”
Newscaster 3
“The Red Army had something to sing about this afternoon. A touch of Hollywood in the fifth Welsh League… actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.. have completed their purchase of Wrexham AFC.”
UK Parliament Simon Hart
“A good moment to congratulate Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney for their recent purchase of Wrexham Football Club.”
Crew Member
“Not yet. Yeah. There he is.”
Wrexham Staff 1
“There you go. Is that better?”
Eagles Fans
“E-A-G-L-E-S. Eagles! Yeah! E-A-G-L-E-S! Eagles!”
Ryan Reynolds Highlight Reel
“Sometimes you got to let your heart lead you, even if you know it’s someplace you know you’re not supposed to be.”
“Time to make the chimi-fucking changas.”
“Aviation American Gin.”
Producer
“Cybersecurity.”
Wrexham Police Officer
“Excuse us. Keep moving! Guys, move on! Keep it moving! Keep going!”
Singer
“Welcome to Wrexham A diamond in the heart of Wales This land of dragons Coal, fire and steel”
“Welcome to Wrexham “
Newscaster
“Hollywood A-lister Ryan Reynolds could be about to take on his next big role.”
Newscaster 2
“Fellow A-lister Rob McElhenney is bidding with Reynolds. They could be about to launch a takeover at Wrexham Football Club.”
Wrexham AFC Caster
“And it’s Thomas who takes it. Oh, what a goal! Mickey Thomas!”
Wrexham Citizen 2
“People have asked me, ‘what’s Wrexham like?’ I’ve just said, ‘don’t go.’ ‘It’s a load of rubbish.’ ‘You’re wasting your time.'”
Wrexham Fan
“Absolute fucking disaster!”
Construction Foreman
“Three, two, one, fire.”
Journalist 3
“I’m hoping this is not some big publicity stunt.”
Journalist 4
“Ah, it’s probably just a joke on Twitter.”
Wrexham Citizen 1
“We’ve heard it all before, so it’ll go tits up, 100%.”
Wrexham Citizen 2
“Don’t get me wrong. If the intentions are good and to move the club forward, then fantastic, but we need to know why Wrexham.”
Welsh Translator
“We’re the new owners of the football. We’ll see how that turns out. We thought it was only appropriate to translate this for our Welsh fans. Wrexham is a historic town filled with amazing characters and you should come visit. We don’t care whether you watch the show or not. Neither of these men have ever pleased their wives… sexually. They will both die alone in their mansions gripped fiercely by the cold, indifferent embrace of pure loneliness.”
