Watch: The video that will have Wrexham players running through walls

David Owens

To say that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney know how to make a film would be something of an understatement.

After all, the Wrexham co-owners are leading lights in Hollywood, so you would very much expect nothing less than celluloid gold from both men.

Nevertheless, even by their exacting standards, the rousing one minute film they have put together to mark the start of the new National League season can only be described as – monumental.

Posted by both Ryan and Rob on their Twitter accounts minutes after midnight, it will certainly set the pulses racing ahead of the home game at The Racecourse against Eastleigh.

To a stirring soundtrack of rousing Celtic accompaniment, imagine Braveheart set in Beddgelert, a best of Wrexham’s goals flash across the screen accompanied by the words, writ large, in a font style that is probably known as Hollywood Trailer Bold:

WE STAND UP. WE SHOW UP. WE FIRE UP. WE GET UP AND NEVER GIVE UP.

NOW A NEW FOOTBALL SEASON BEGINS AND THERE’S ONLY ONE DIRECTION

UP

THE TOWN

AUGUST 6, 2022

It’s officially zero sleeps until opening day in Wales (and also zero sleeps for the rest of the season). COYR! @wrexham_afc pic.twitter.com/93ZRvR8S6a

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 5, 2022

If after watching it, Wrexham’s players and fans aren’t simultaneously motivated, inspired, excited and potentially foaming at the mouth at the prospect of the new season getting underway, then they need to immediately check their pulse as they are possibly clinically dead.

After I watched it I wanted to don a red shirt and run through a brick wall for the town. And I’m a Cardiff City fan.

The clip comes as publicity for the forthcoming Welcome To Wrexham series is ramped up.

All the stops are being pulled out Stateside to put the club and the town on the global stage.

This is the sight that greets you when you exit Los Angeles International Airport.

The giant billboard, advertising Welcome To Wrexham TV, was posted by football commentator Jon Champion.

Champion, who is lead commentator for ESPN in the States, who has already seen Gareth Bale cause an outbreak of Welsh fever Stateside, wrote: ‘Proof that ⁦@Wrexham_AFC are turning heads in Hollywood. This is the 1st thing you see – apart from traffic – when you emerge from LAX. #WxmAFC’

Proof that ⁦@Wrexham_AFC⁩ are turning heads in Hollywood. This is the 1st thing you see – apart from traffic – when you emerge from LAX. #WxmAFC pic.twitter.com/ZZKYcbr9yn

— Jon Champion (@JonChampionJC) August 4, 2022

And it’s not only the west coast of the States that Welcome To Wrexham is receiving some heavyweight advertising. In New York, on those famous yellow taxis, you’ll also see ads for the hugely anticipated fly-on-the-wall TV series.

In a post by former Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore, who was an advisor to the Wrexham co-owners when they took over the club, he tweeted a picture of one of this iconic cabs bearing a Welcome To Wrexham ad.

The heavyweight advertising Stateside comes as the first trailer for the TV series was released last week.

Ryan Reynolds shared a heart-warming first full trailer for the new series due to premiere later this month.

Welcome to Wrexham will be released on 24 August on FX. The series will tell the story of how Reynolds teamed up with the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob Mcelhenney to become owners of the Welsh club.

It will also be broadcast in the UK on the Disney+ streaming service and will be available to watch from Thursday, August 25.

No pressure. #WelcomeToWrexham pic.twitter.com/khyucnPqAf

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) July 20, 2022

A synopsis promoting the release date said: “Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) teamed up to purchase the team in the hopes of turning the club into an underdog story the whole world could root for.

“The worry? Rob and Ryan have no experience in football or working with each other. That said, they are serious about their investment in Wrexham, improving the club and doing right by the townspeople.

“From Hollywood to Wales, the pitch to the locker room, the front office to the pub, Welcome to Wrexham will track Rob and Ryan’s crash course in football club ownership and the inextricably connected fates of a team and a town counting on two actors to bring some serious hope and change to a community that could use it.”

Whatever the future brings, one thing is certain, Welcome To Wrexham is going to make for compelling viewing.