Reynolds seeks Hollywood ending as Wrexham eyes promotion

Ryan Reynolds stood in the corporate box at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, Wales, watching his team defend a one-goal lead deep into stoppage time. Notts County had just been awarded a penalty—a chance to equalize and steal the league title on goal difference. The moment hung suspended. Then Ben Foster, a 40-year-old retired Manchester United goalkeeper who had been coaxed out of retirement weeks earlier, threw himself to his right and punched away Cedwyn Scott's penalty kick. The stadium erupted. Reynolds and his co-owner Rob McElhenney embraced. What had just unfolded was so improbable, so perfectly timed, that no screenwriter would dare pitch it as fiction.

This is the story of Wrexham's second season, and it is shaping up to be the redemption arc that the first one never quite delivered. The Welsh soccer club, owned by the two Hollywood actors since their $2.5 million takeover in 2021, came agonizingly close to promotion last year. They finished the regular season 11 points and four places ahead of Grimsby, only to lose to them 5-4 in the playoff final. They also suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bromley in the FA Trophy final at Wembley, with David Beckham, Will Ferrell, and Jason Sudeikis watching from the stands. The pain of those failures hung over the club and its long-suffering supporters, who had owned the team themselves since 2011.

But this season has been different. After the Notts County match—a 3-2 victory that left both teams tied at 100 points—Wrexham sits on the brink of promotion from the National League, five tiers below the Premier League. One win over Boreham Wood on Saturday would secure the league title and automatic promotion to the fourth division after a 15-year absence. "That was the most dramatic thing I've ever seen in my life," Reynolds said after the Notts County match, his voice still breathless. "I will never be the same again."

The unlikely collision between Hollywood and a former mining town in Wales has generated far more than either Reynolds or McElhenney could have anticipated when they signed on to be the subjects of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. The show's first season captured the entertainment value of two actors learning to run a professional sports club from scratch. But the second season promises something more: a genuine redemption story, complete with a cast of characters who have risked their own careers on the venture. Paul Mullin, the club's leading scorer, dropped down a division to join Wrexham. Ollie Palmer, a striker who previously played for AFC Wimbledon, dropped down two divisions. "It was a massive risk," Palmer said. "A lot of people really thought it was the wrong decision." No one thinks that anymore.

Manager Phil Parkinson, a respected coach accustomed to working at higher levels of English soccer, arrived skeptical. He didn't know Reynolds or McElhenney personally, and he wasn't sure what to make of their intentions. But he came to understand that they meant what they said. "What they say they back up," Parkinson told the Associated Press. The manager has become invested in the mission—not just for the owners, but for the supporters who have endured years of disappointment. "I'm desperate to get over the finishing line for them," he said. "They deserve it. But more importantly for the supporters who have followed this club through some tough times."

Reynolds himself has undergone a transformation. The actor, known for the "Deadpool" films, has developed a genuine attachment to both Wrexham and soccer itself. After the Notts County match, he reflected that he was grateful he had discovered the sport later in life, because if he had grown up with it, it would have "eaten me alive." His presence, along with McElhenney's, has injected new energy into the club and its community. A new 5,000-seat stand is under construction, which will raise the Racecourse Ground's capacity to 15,000. The worldwide exposure from the documentary has transformed Wrexham from a struggling fifth-tier club into a global phenomenon.

Yet there is a cautionary note. Parkinson is wary of getting ahead of himself. "This club has got the potential to be anything," he said, "but we've got to be careful we don't get carried away with ourselves at all." Palmer, by contrast, is unguarded in his ambition. "There's no denying that if we get into League Two next season we should be pushing for promotion to the third division," he said. "We've got a League One football squad. Next season if we get into League Two, which I believe we will, we will be fighting for promotion again."

For now, Wrexham has one match left to write the ending that eluded them last season. A routine victory would feel almost anticlimactic given everything that has come before. But then again, this is Wrexham—a club that has already defied logic so many times that nothing would surprise anyone anymore. The documentary's second season is almost writing itself.