Wrexham FC has been the story for a few weeks now ever since they were able to come down the home stretch in control of their own destiny. We’re talking about English football today, though, because the team is owned by Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds and the run they’ve been on since the two took over.
On Saturday, Wrexham did it – with a 3-0 win over Charlton they’ve secured an unprecedented third promotion in three years and have ascended to the Championship, one level away from the vaulted top tier, the Premier League. When I posted about this last week, I wondered if Rob and Ryan would be in Wales this weekend and indeed they were. Of course they were. It was a Hollywood ending.
If you know even a little about football, this is a monumental achievement, this series of promotions, to the point where there’s now talk of whether or not – even when – Wrexham can really reach the Premier League. This, now, has to be the new objective. Not sure if it’ll be possible immediately but from both a fan and business perspective, that’s always the goal.
For now though, the community is overjoyed – during their time in Wrexham, Rob and Ryan have shown that their investment was more than just throwing money at the club. They each put in the required face time, by all accounts they’re as involved as they can be. Yesterday Ryan was serving beer in the stalls. Last week Rob was in the stands hanging out with the fans. Both seem to have good relationships with the coaching team and the players. This is 100% a success story.
And also a documentary. Today both Rob and Ryan dropped the brand new trailer for Welcome to Wrexham premiering May 15. As we have seen, these two have created a whole ecosystem around the club, lending their celebrity to their investment. The club keeps winning which adds to the value. The club has its own show which adds to the cachet. And the cash comes in with merch and sponsorships.
This is a Win, capital “W” that could not have come at a better time for Ryan in particular because of … well… you know. These days, almost every article or mention of Ryan comes with a mention of Blake Lively’s lawsuit and Justin Baldoni’s countersuit. Blake joined Ryan for the trip in Wales, and was seen with him and Rob in the suite as well as on the pitch after the victory. She also posted about it on Instagram. The carousel also includes Aly Raisman and Michele Morrone, her costar in Another Simple Favor, who apparently Facetimed her during the celebration.
And speaking of Another Simple Favor, Blake and Ryan were hoping to carry the winning momentum of the weekend back to New York for the premiere, another opportunity for body language “experts” to analyse the vibe between her and Anna Kendrick. However you feel about Blake is going to determine how you read the energy. What’s more interesting to me, gossip-wise, given the situation, is who else showed up.
Hugh Jackman, of course, who is super tight with Ryan and Blake, was there to support. And also Emily Blunt who attended with her brother-in-law Stanley Tucci. Blake and Emily have been close friends for a long time and she’s doing Blake a solid here for sure. Shawn Levy was there, that’s no surprise. But what’s the Patti LuPone connection? The Queen of Broadway pulled up for Paul Feig although it should probably be noted that Patti doesn’t have to do favours for anyone and if she was there she wanted to be there.
Which of course is what the studio wants out of the press tour and the premiere – as many bold-faced names as possible, and as much positivity as possible to counter the ongoing wave of negativity that follows Blake around these days. Reviews for Another Simple Favor range from medium to pretty good from established critics. Considering though that it’s getting vote sabotaged on platforms like IMDb (and this has long been a problem there) it’ll be interesting to see how the movie does when it starts streaming on Amazon this weekend and how badly, or not, the impact of Blake’s reputation will have on the movie’s performance.
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