The documentary series Welcome to Wrexham has been a revelation for the Welsh team under owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, but behind the scenes it's been tougher than fans might expect.
Reynolds and McElhenney bring great energy to Wrexham, and have made the club into a global phenomenon instead of just a popular team in Wales. Despite being used to being in front of a camera in their day jobs, the owners found the series difficult due to whole real the moments were.
The owners were keen to not make the show all about them, instead shining the light on the team and the town of Wrexham. The first season focused on their hunt for promotion during the 2021-22 season, a campaign which ended in heartbreak as they missed out on a return to the Football League.
The next series is expected to be even more popular after Wrexham finally won the National League title, but lots of lessons would have been learned from the opening season. Reynolds and McElhenney showed their serious side as they opened up on the difficulties they faced during filming, with certain moments being cut from the final product.
"If you’re just reading the headlines, you probably think, ‘Oh, this show is going to be funny,'" Reynolds said in an interview with Variety. "It’s gonna be a fish-out-of-water story about two schmucky showbiz morons going in, falling on their a****, learning as they go. But the show literally does not centre us. It centres the town."
During the first series Wrexham made the decision to change their coaching staff, and several players were not offered new contracts as the team looked to rebuild. It highlighted the reality of competitive sports, and led to some tough decisions about what was aired.
"Those were really difficult moments. You realise this is not a game, this is not a television show, these are people’s lives," McElhenney added. "We do not take any of that lightly, and we were on camera making those decisions.
"But it was a conscious choice to not put that into the documentary, because it didn’t seem fair to the people who were going through the real difficult thing in that situation to focus it on us, as if our agony was more important than theirs. It certainly was not.
Tough decisions have to be made as football club owners, and Reynolds and McElhenney will be very much aware now that this is a serious game and not just for fun. While remorse has been shown in the past, Wrexham are where they need to be after achieving promotion.
"But all roads lead to here, so no regrets at all," Reynolds explained. "I’m so grateful for the experiences of that first big season, even with the fact that the club didn’t get promoted, because it laid the groundwork for one of the most exciting seasons, I think, in National League football history.
"I don’t think I’ve ever felt anxiety ratcheted up like (at the end of the 2022-23 season). It wasn’t enjoyable for me. It was hell going into the Notts County game this year, actual hell. The fact that the team managed to pull it out in the last second was so perfectly Wrexham."
