Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are doing what they do best in the latest Welcome to Wrexham episode — poking fun at themselves.
“I think we should address what people have been saying about us,” Reynolds, 48, kicked off the FX show’s latest episode, which premiered on Thursday, May 22. “You know, the Disney thing.”
McElhenney, 48, explained that “people in the U.K. and all over the world” have started referring to their Wrexham soccer team as “Disney FC,” referring to Welcome to Wrexham being on FX (which is owned by Disney). Not to mention, McElhenney’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs on the same network and Reynolds’ Deadpool franchise falls under the Disney umbrella.
“We get it, there’s similarities. We like parades, we like fans, we like costumed characters, merch, I could go on,” Reynolds said. McElhenney added, “I’m going to be dead honest with all of you, I wanted with all of my heart to hate Disneyland.”
McElhenney admitted to being “transported like a child to the happiest place on Earth,” and goes every year for his birthday. He also had some choice words for those Disney FC critics.
“We invite you all to come experience that magic with us through the tale of Disney FC,” he said. “The rest of you jaded pricks can go f*** your f***ing selves.”
Wrexham falls into another major Disney category: happily ever after.
For those not keeping up, McElhenney and Reynolds bought a losing Wrexham AFC in 2020 with the hopes of turning it into a Premier League team. Over the past four seasons, the actors have created a winning squad that made history earlier this year after being promoted to a higher league for the third year in a row. This is, basically, unheard of.
Despite the highs and lows, the wins and losses, Wrexham is always coming out on top. A happily ever after indeed.
As the rest of this week’s Welcome to Wrexham continued, McElhenney and Reynolds took the Disney FC bit about as far as they could. The episode did, indeed, come to an end with CGI fireworks over the Wrexham stadium and Tinker Bell waving her magic wand.
New episodes of Welcome to Wrexham premiere on FX Thursdays at 9 p.m. and are streaming via Hulu the following day.
