Ryan Reynolds says Wrexham ‘on march to history’ after promotion

Wrexham FC are on “a march to history” following their unprecedented third straight promotion to the second tier of English football, co-owner Ryan Reynolds has said.

The Canadian actor also said the club’s success had helped unite the north Wales city.

“Wrexham is just as politically divided as anywhere else but when you walk through the gates of that place, we’re all wearing the same shirt and we’re chanting the same filthy songs,” he told US host Stephen Colbert.

Reynolds also admitted that – four years after buying the club – he had found learning Welsh “difficult”.

Wrexham’s promotion to the Championship last month meant the club became the first team in the history of English football’s top five divisions to secure three successive promotions.

Reynolds – who regularly attends games, celebrating with the team when they won promotion last month – said he was motivated to make the club a success after meeting a woman who asked him why he had invested in Wrexham.

“I said ‘why not?’ and she said ‘because nothing good ever happens to us’.”

“It’s the kind of ecstasy and joy that you can’t believe exists,” he said.

Reynolds added “we live in a digital hate tank” and he believed in the power of sports, music and films to bring people together.

“We really experience togetherness, where the same thing, the same moment at the same time brings us together even tighter – and I love that about this,” he said.

Reynolds also said he has struggled to learn the Welsh language.

“I find it very hard. Like French-Canadian was hard enough,” he said, in contrast to co-owner Rob McElhenney who is “really studious” when it comes to learning languages.

Reynolds added after buying the club when they were in the National League – the fifth tier of English football – people had laughed when he and McElhenney said their goal was to reach the Premier League.

“Now we’re standing on the precipice of that very dream in this little town,” he said.

Reynolds also said he had not known there was a town in Wales called Welshpool when he created a character with that name for the Deadpool film franchise.

The character was played by Wrexham striker Paul Mullins in the 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine.

“In Deadpool, I fight a whole bunch of other Deadpools, and I made one of them Welshpool, which I found out is an actual town – so there was some confusion.”