Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds talk trust, heart and the journey of 'Welcome to Wrexham'

Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds are kicking things into high gear with season five of "Welcome to Wrexham."

The docuseries follows the stars, who purchased the Wrexham Red Dragons football (soccer) club, the third oldest club in the world, in 2021, as they attempted to move the team from the near bottom of the English Football League to the top.

And oh, what a journey it's been.

"Welcome to Wrexham" has documented the team as it won back-to-back-to-back promotions, reaching the Championship League. And now, in season five of the series, they're going for the top of the pyramid.

"We are on the precipice of the Premier League. We don't know if it's going to happen this year, but it's very, very close," Mac told On The Red Carpet.

"The playoff match, the one that decides who's going up into the Premier League and who isn't, is considered the most expensive sports match on earth," added Reynolds. "One team reaches the Empyrean heights of success, is immediately granted the TV ad revenue for an entire league, an ungodly amount of money that almost instantly evaporates into infrastructure, players, salaries, wages, everything you would need to be equipped for a Premier League team. And the other club goes back to fighting it out again in that league and hopefully returning next year as a contender."

The beginning of the team's Championship League season saw lots of changes to the club, including losing several key players. Those decisions and their outcomes are documented in season five.

"You can't write this, you can't plan for this. There's nothing we've done that is like a strategically imperative that got us here except getting the hell out of our own way and their way...the people who know football, not making football decisions, letting those people who are qualified to do so do their job and do it well has been the secret sauce here," said Reynolds.

"Welcome to Wrexham" has won ten Emmys in its first four seasons. It's been renewed through its eighth season.

With the success of the team and the visibility through the docu-series, tourism for the Welsh town of Wrexham has skyrocketed over the last few years. But beyond the sport and beyond the celebrity of its owners lies the people of Wrexham. And it's their stories that captured the hearts of the world.

"Our mission statement, our maxim, as an organization is to make our community proud," said Mac. "Now, does that mean that winning isn't important? Of course not. Of course we want to win, that's the name of the game. But if you win and lose your soul along the way it will have been for nothing. And conversely, if we don't win but people still continue to feel a sense of hope and optimism and pride and community, that really is the ultimate goal of the organization."

"I want to underline something Rob said months ago, which is that if the club succeeds and reaches all those Empyrean Heights that everyone would possibly dream of, but the town does not join them for that ride or reach that same peak, then we failed," added Reynolds. "This club has been around since 1864. We are a blip in the historical timeline of Wrexham AFC, a blip. So they've been there. They understand the nuance and the story history, and they are the ones, they alone are the ones that will guard and be that kind of emotional moat around the club when it reaches more imperial heights or difficult times and stretches. You have to have their faith and trust and it's a huge, huge part of all of this for us."

Episode one of season five tells the story of Wrexham fan Bailey Jones, who passed away in 2023 from a brain bleed. His organs were donated and Bailey's family met the recipient of his heart. As Reynolds says in a clip from the episode, "it's an easy parallel to draw when you talk about the heart of the club and you talk about what that is...it's the people."

"This isn't a football documentary. It's not even a, it's not a sports documentary. And all the things that we talk about, the things you're bringing up have nothing to do with us winning football matches," Mac said. "Those storylines have nothing do with football. They just happened, football just happens to be the reason that they're gathering on Saturdays. Aside from that, it's just humans being humans."

The first two episodes of "Welcome to Wrexham" season five premiere Thursday on FXX and Hulu. It'll air internationally on Disney+. New episodes will drop weekly.

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