Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac Reveal the Definitive Opening Date for Wrexham’s Stadium Expansion [Exclusive]

Don’t miss Reynolds and Mac’s chat with Collider’s Steven Weintraub, where they discuss the unbelievable heights the docuseries and team have reached since their 2022 launch. Reynolds spotlights the true engine behind Wrexham’s success with the prospect of upending the English Football League, and Mac gives a definitive timeline for the completion of the Racecourse Ground stadium expansion. Don’t miss all this and their updates on Mac’s Far Cry series with Alien: Earth’s Noah Hawley and Reynolds’ plans for the future of Deadpool in the video above or the transcript below.

From Underdogs to Disruptors, Ryan Reynolds Breaks Down Wrexham’s Rise

"They earned that in ways that are unbelievable."

COLLIDER: Rob, I'm going to start with you as an individual. I want you to be honest with me. Was the name change a result of you really wanting to assimilate into Welsh culture, or was it the result of losing an expensive bet to Ryan?

RYAN REYNOLDS: Can I answer this?

ROB MAC: Sure.

REYNOLDS: He's always been Mac. Just Rob Mac. It's always Rob Mac. So, I personally find this to be a huge relief. I was struggling with the spelling myself. So now, oh, thank god, just Rob Mac.

MAC: My whole life, that's what people called me. That was always my nickname, that was my name in the show, and it just became much, much easier. People will just refer to me as that anyway. And then I did a family tree.

The quick story is I did a family tree through Ancestry, who’s one of our partners, and I realized that when a group of my family members came in through Ellis Island and other areas, it was not McElhenney. It was spelled 16 different ways, and they changed it. They changed it four different times. And the easiest one they came up with was McElhenney, confusing everyone for 150 years. The vast majority of them couldn't read or write anyway, so I felt like if Ellis Island was going to change it, I would just change it back.

No, totally. And by the way, I'm just messing around. You do seem happy with the name change. So, you've taken Wrexham from the National League to the doorstep of the Premier League. At what point does this stop being a fairy tale and become a docuseries on how to disrupt the entire English Football League?

REYNOLDS: Well, I think if I were to look at a case study on Wrexham, I would say that if you had to pick, and there are many things that serve as an inflection point or serve as an engine to this working, and sometimes it's as benign and silly as the ball just bounced away, but I would say that if you’ve got to pick one thing, it's that Rob and I, since the jump, have been very comfortable saying, “I don't know,” and allowing people to make football decisions, and these are people who have been tenured in this sport since the day they were eased out of the womb wearing soccer cleats. They understand the sport better than we will ever understand it.

So, to have co-chairmen of a historic club like this who are willing to keep their hands off the major football decisions and instead invest in relationships and create emotional investment around the club, that is the moat that keeps the club resilient, is that emotional investment, which has always been there in Wrexham. But to create that emotional investment globally has been really fascinating because Wrexham is an underdog story that I think people really resonate with all over the world.

And I'm careful to say “underdog” because it's done so well, but that town is what makes it the underdog. That town has gone unseen and unheard for decades. It has fallen on some of the hardest times you can imagine. They have personally saved their own club three different times, with hats in hand, getting pocket change at doorsteps to save the club from insolvency. So, they earned that in ways that are unbelievable. You can dislike Rob or I, that's fine, but it's impossible to dislike this town.

Rob Mac Sets Timeline for Wrexham’s Stadium Expansion

"This man makes things happen."

I've asked you this the last few seasons. What is the status of the Racecourse rebuild, and when will the, I believe the coop? Am I saying that wrong?

MAC: Kop.

I knew I’d fuck that up. When will the Kop be open? Because I think that's going to give you guys another 5 or 6,000 seats.

REYNOLDS: Wait, it’s not a chicken coop, is it?

MAC: No, no, no, we're actually building a stadium.

REYNOLDS: Because that would be real dumb.

MAC: Yeah. The elevator shaft should have given it away, right?

REYNOLDS: Well, I thought so, but we could have a real fancy chicken coop.

MAC: I'm gonna say this publicly, just because it's easier once you say it publicly, it's going to be ready for the start of the 2007/2008 season. It's going to be open for business people, and that means butts in seats, people.

REYNOLDS: ‘27. Did you say 2007/2008?

MAC: 2027. [Laughs] Yeah. So, 2027/2028, which would be not next season, but the season after that, there will be people sitting in the seats watching football, eating concessions, and hopefully we will be in whatever league we're in.

REYNOLDS: This man makes things happen. I’ve got to say, if you tell Rob “impossible,” you watch his pupils suddenly dilate, and something happens internally, like he gives himself rabies and then just goes after the problem like a sick fuck.

MAC: It’s exciting.

If Wrexham makes it to the Premier League, what is the most absurd promise you're both willing to make right now?

REYNOLDS: [Laughs] The most absurd promise we’re willing to make right now?

Yeah, the most absurd promise.

REYNOLDS: I don’t know, donut-sized ulcers? Is that a promise that I can make? I mean, I feel comfortable, personally, making that.

MAC: Yeah, more regular blood pressure checks.

REYNOLDS: Yes.

MAC: Full blood panels, just to make sure that I'm healthy and safe and my cholesterol remains low.

REYNOLDS: Well, of course. I could change my name to Ryan Rod. Rodney is my middle name. I’m not proud of it.

MAC: Ryan Rod is a great porn name.

REYNOLDS: It is great.

MAC: My goodness! We have to go into a different industry.

REYNOLDS: I can't wait for an expertly lit French porn.

The show was renewed for three additional seasons, and one of the things that's great about that is you can rely on the revenue and the filming. It's not a season-by-season thing. How has that possibly changed what you want to do with the docuseries over the next three years?

MAC: It's such a statement of success and intent by The Walt Disney Company, and that has been really important to us because it allows us to demonstrate. Of course, streamers being what they are and where we are right now, not everybody's always releasing all of the data, so you never know who's watching and how many people are watching. You can feel it anecdotally when you walk around. I get more people saying something to me about Wrexham all over the world than anything I've ever done, but you don't know exactly how many people are watching. When The Walt Disney Company comes out and says, “We want to buy three more seasons of the show,” that's a pretty good indication that people are watching the show, and that means that sponsors and revenue dollars and other fans are going to look to us and say, “Okay, it's not just these two clowns saying that this club is a success. It actually is the full weight and force of the Disney machine that agrees.”

Don't Expect More Deadpool Any Time Soon

Rob, I am so curious about Far Cry. When do you start filming? What do you want to tell fans about the series? And Ryan, I think you know people at Collider are fans of your work, especially when you play this Merc with a Mouth, and I'm just curious, are you currently writing something? Have you spoken to Kevin [Feige] about the next time you may play this character?

MAC: We are starting to shoot in the fall. I can tell you that Noah Hawley is a genius. As close to a genius as I've ever worked with. We created the show together. We broke the first episode. And usually when you break an episode, and then a writer goes off to write something, especially as a writer, you're going through it with a fine-tooth comb, and it's usually about 50% of what you talked about, and 30% is really great, and then the other 70%, you’ve got to maybe work on. It was 30% of what we talked about and 150% better. Every script that he's written has just leveled up.

It is such a love letter to the game itself, and yet you could have never played the game whatsoever, never heard of the game, and still love the series. It’s going to be grueling and brutal, and also a beautiful love story.

I cannot wait. Ryan?

REYNOLDS: Briefly, because I'm sure we don't have much time, I've talked to Marvel off and on, always. We have a really great relationship, you know? It's always a conversation. I'm always just looking to be additive and help on anything, even if it's not a movie I’m in. And I'm always writing. I mean, it's how I kind of get it out of my system. I love writing. That character and that world is one in which anything is possible, and that in and of itself allows for so much freedom and storytelling.

So, I have a few things written that I love. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out when the time is right. I'm not in any huge rush right now to do anything, and I think Deadpool works best on both scarcity and surprise, so jumping right back into it full on right now is probably not something I'm going to do. But I gotta say, that Marvel team, those guys have been incredible, all of them, and I’m really, really lucky to have the opportunity to work with them the way I have, as intimately as I have.

Welcome to Wrexham Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2, premiere on May 14 on FXX and Hulu, and on Disney+ internationally. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly.