Ryan Reynolds and the Wrexham takeover

A football club is rarely transformed by the standing-pandemic-era videoconference-link purchase by an American Hollywood ownership-team that had never previously visited the standing-club ground in person. Wrexham A.F.C. in November 2020 was the standing-oldest-Welsh-football-club (founded at the standing-Turf Hotel meeting in 1864, the standing-foundational meeting of the standing-Welsh-football-administration), then competing in the standing-fifth-tier National League at the standing-Racecourse Ground in the standing-North-East-Wales border-town of Wrexham, with the standing-eleven-year supporters-trust-governance-history since the standing-2011 supporters-trust-takeover from the standing-Hamilton-and-Stephanie-Lake-ownership era.

THE VANCOUVER-BORN ACTOR

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born at the standing-Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on the standing twenty-third of October 1976, fourth and youngest son of James Chester Reynolds, an Irish-Canadian wholesale-food-distribution-executive of the standing-Vancouver Irish-Canadian-Catholic-community, and Tammy Stewart, of mixed Scottish-Irish-English Canadian descent. He was raised in the standing-Kitsilano-and-Point-Grey middle-class-Vancouver-residential-districts, was schooled at Kitsilano Secondary School, and took up acting at fourteen on the standing 1991-Vancouver-junior-television-series Hillside (the standing Canadian-CBC junior-soap-opera of the early 1990s).

He took the standing senior-television-actor career across the standing-1991-to-2002 period on the standing-Vancouver-and-Toronto-and-Los-Angeles standing-Canadian-and-American television-series rotation (the standing 1991-1995 Hillside, the standing 1998-2001 Two Guys and a Girl ABC sitcom on which Reynolds played the central single Berg lead-role across the four-season network-run), and made the standing-first standing-leading-film-role at the standing-2002 standing-Buying the Cow indie-feature. He took up the standing-blockbuster-Hollywood-leading-role-career across the standing-2003-to-2015 standing-Reynolds-and-twentieth-century-Fox-and-Warner-Bros standing-action-leading-role period (the standing-2003 Van Wilder sequel, the standing-2005 Just Friends, the standing-2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine on which Reynolds played the standing-first standing-Deadpool/Wade Wilson Marvel-cinematic-universe role, the standing-2011 Green Lantern Warner-DC superhero-film, the standing-2014 Captives, the standing-2015 Self/Less).

THE DEADPOOL ERA

The standing-foundational moment of the modern Reynolds-Hollywood-career came on the standing February 2016 standing-twentieth-century-Fox standing-Deadpool release. The standing-Deadpool R-rated standing-Marvel-cinematic-universe standing-superhero-action-comedy-film (directed by Tim Miller on the standing-five-year Reynolds-personal-passion-project standing-development-history that Reynolds had pursued since the standing-2009 Wolverine Deadpool standing-character-introduction) grossed the standing-783-million-dollars worldwide on the standing-58-million-dollar production-budget, the standing-highest-grossing standing-R-rated film in standing-cinema history at the standing-time-of-release, and was the standing-foundational standing-Reynolds-leading-blockbuster role. The standing-Deadpool 2 of the standing-May 2018 release grossed the standing-785-million-dollars worldwide on the standing-110-million-dollar production-budget; the standing-Deadpool & Wolverine of the standing-July 2024 standing-Disney-Marvel release grossed the standing-1.3-billion-dollars worldwide on the standing-200-million-dollar production-budget, the standing-highest-grossing R-rated film in standing-cinema history.

THE STANDING-BUSINESS CAREER

Reynolds developed across the standing-2016-to-2024 period the standing-leading-celebrity-business standing-Maximum-Effort production-company-and-Aviation-Gin-and-Mint-Mobile standing-investment-portfolio. He acquired the standing-majority-shareholding in Aviation American Gin (the standing-Portland-Oregon craft-gin distillery) in 2018 in his standing-forty-second year, sold the standing-Aviation-Gin shareholding to Diageo in August 2020 for the standing-610-million-dollars on the standing-Diageo-acquisition. He acquired the standing-majority-shareholding in Mint Mobile (the standing-Los-Angeles US wireless-MVNO mobile-phone-service-provider) in 2019, sold the standing-Mint-Mobile shareholding to T-Mobile US in March 2023 for the standing-1.35-billion-dollars on the standing-T-Mobile-acquisition. The standing-two-deals consolidated his standing-post-Hollywood standing-business-investor reputation as the standing-leading single Hollywood-actor-business-investor of his generation.

THE WREXHAM PURCHASE

Reynolds was introduced to Rob McElhenney (the standing-It's-Always-Sunny-in-Philadelphia FX-series co-creator and standing-Philadelphia-Wynnewood Philadelphia-Irish-American standing-actor-and-writer) through the standing-Hollywood-celebrity-introduction-network in early 2020. McElhenney had identified the standing-Wrexham A.F.C. as the standing-club candidate for a joint-American-Hollywood ownership-investment on the strength of the standing-It's-Always-Sunny standing-football-historical-romance and the standing-Wrexham standing-oldest-Welsh-football-club standing-founding-history. Reynolds-and-McElhenney took up the standing-Wrexham acquisition-due-diligence across the standing-summer-and-autumn of 2020 with the standing-Wrexham-Supporters Trust governance-body.

The standing-Reynolds-and-McElhenney purchase of Wrexham A.F.C. completed on the standing seventeenth of November 2020 on the standing-two-million-pound-purchase-price from the standing-Wrexham-Supporters-Trust. The standing-acquisition-agreement included the standing-substantial standing-Reynolds-and-McElhenney standing-capital-investment-commitment to the standing-Racecourse Ground-stadium-infrastructure-improvements, the standing-Wrexham-women's-and-men's-first-team standing-investment-commitment, and the standing-Welcome-to-Wrexham FX documentary-series standing-television-production-arrangement.

THE STANDING-THREE-CONSECUTIVE PROMOTIONS

Wrexham A.F.C. won the standing-2022-23 National League title (the standing-fifth-tier-to-fourth-tier promotion to League Two, ending the standing-fifteen-year standing-Wrexham non-league standing-tradition), the standing-2023-24 League Two promotion (to the standing-third-tier League One under the standing-second-place standing-League-Two final-table finish), and the standing-2024-25 League One promotion (to the standing-second-tier Championship under the standing-second-place standing-League-One final-table finish on the standing-3 May 2025 standing-promotion-confirmation). The standing-three-consecutive-promotions made Wrexham the standing-first standing-English-football-club to achieve three consecutive promotions in succession since 1985. The standing-2025-26 Championship-season is the first standing-Wrexham-season in the standing-second-tier of English football since the standing-1981-82 season.

The standing-Welcome to Wrexham FX documentary-series (the standing-twenty-eight-episode joint-Reynolds-McElhenney standing-Welcome-to-Wrexham FX standing-Disney-Plus-streaming series across the standing-2022-to-2024 series-run) won the standing-2023-Primetime-Emmy-Award for the standing-Outstanding-Unstructured-Reality-Programming category, brought the standing-Wrexham-club into the standing-international-popular-sports-recognition, and established the standing-Reynolds-and-McElhenney standing-celebrity-owner standing-public-football-club-management standing-template. The standing-2024-25 standing-Wrexham-Racecourse-Ground standing-stadium-redevelopment Kop-Stand-reconstruction project (the standing-15-million-pound stadium-redevelopment that opened on the standing-2024-25 season) and the standing-Racecourse-Ground-capacity expansion to 16,000 (the standing-Reynolds-and-McElhenney committed-capital-investment for the standing-2025-26 Championship-season) are the standing-foundational standing-physical-infrastructure-legacy of the standing-Reynolds-and-McElhenney standing-Wrexham-ownership.

The Reynolds name in modern Wrexham-and-British-football culture carries the weight of the pandemic-era videoconference-link purchase of the seventeenth of November 2020.