Why Channing Tatum, Will Ferrell & Hugh Jackman want Wrexham tickets! Ryan Reynolds explains Red Dragons’ VIP guest list

Celebrity guests have become the norm in North Wales following a remarkable takeover completed by Deadpool actor Reynolds and ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’ star Rob McElhenney back in 2021. They have been regular visitors to SToK Racecourse across four memorable years.

Famous friends are often invited along for the ride – with the likes of Eva Longoria and Paul Rudd also sitting on that list – as the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary series has opened up a window to the world and generated interest in the most unlikeliest of places.

Discussing the flood of A-list visitors to EFL fixtures in the United Kingdom, Reynolds told the Men In Blazers podcast: “It’s a bit like the Wrexham story – if you look and you’re patient enough, there is magic there. I don’t have to pitch them anything. They have seen the show and they understand how ‘the sausage gets made’, to a certain degree. The show doesn’t centre myself or Rob, it really centres the community and the team. They want to experience that. I think people want to feel a bit of that ‘Field of Dreams’ energy and walk into a place that is hallowed and a place that has – somehow, despite Rob and I’s best efforts - remained unspoiled. Will Ferrell is a football nut. He just wanted to be there, he wanted to experience the Racecourse ground and all that it has to offer. Hugh was the same way. Channing, I’m not very strong so I needed someone to carry things up the stairs to the suite!”

Greenday frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is another to have visited Wrexham - on the terraces, rather than in a VIP box - with Reynolds adding: “There’s nothing normal about it! You can’t make anything good without enthusiasm, and I genuinely believe in the power of enthusiasm. I know Billie Joe from the fact that his song was used in Deadpool & Wolverine. It was so effective that I felt like it was cheating and I called him to just say thanks for licensing the song, I don’t want anything from it, I just genuinely was really grateful that he said yes – he didn’t have to and Marvel paid the money but he still didn’t have to. You’d be surprised how many musicians don’t license their music. He said ‘I watch Wrexham, we’re obsessed and I’d love to come and see a match some time’. We stayed in touch and eventually it worked out when he was in London and said ‘I’d love to go with you’.”

There promises to be more famous faces at the Racecourse on Thursday for Wrexham’s latest League One fixture, with Phil Parkinson preparing to send his side into battle with Tom Brady’s Birmingham – in what has become known as the ‘Hollywood Derby’.