Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney describe ‘monarchy bootcamp’ before Charles and Camilla’s Wrexham visit
Wrexham AFC welcomed the King and Queen in December last year
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Your support makes all the difference.The soon-to-be-released second season of Welcome to Wrexham will see King Charles III and Queen Camilla visit the Welsh football club and their A-list owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The King and Queen visited the club in December last year, receiving a tour of the Racecourse Ground, which is the world's oldest international football stadium that still hosts international matches.
In the first episode of the FX series’ new season, the two actors describe the etiquette training they received ahead of the royal visit.
Reynolds, 46, says: “We went to monarchy boot camp. It’s like the military except your pinky’s always up.”
Humphrey Ker, Wrexham’s executive director, speaks about the importance of impressing the monarchy due to their links to the UK government.
“We are trying to get £20m worth of Kop [stadium seating] funding from the UK government. Two years of work has gone into lining up all the pieces of the puzzle to try and get this funding and that will give us an extra 5,500 seats,” he says.
“It will also give us a stadium that is deemed to be of international standards so we can bring Welsh football back to the Racecourse. It’s the biggest and most expensive piece of the endeavour.”
McElheeny, 46, however, has some issues with royal etiquette. “I think I am going have a hard time with this,” he says; “The idea of bowing to somebody. It triggers something.”
After being told about the importance of their posture, the pair are seen sitting bolt upright in their chairs as Reynolds quips: “I feel like a serial killer.”
Charles and Camilla were in Wrexham to celebrate its new city status. “A little earlier today, I had the opportunity to see one of the other wonders of Wrexham, namely the football club, which is busy putting Wrexham on the map as never before,” Charles told dignitaries on the visit.
“We’ll do anything to uplift and elevate this community and this club and having the King pay a visit is certainly one way to do it, that’s for sure,” Deadpool star Reynolds told reporters at the time.
In his two-star review for The Independent, Nick Hilton called Welcome to Wrexham’s second season “a vapid advert masquerading as a sports documentary”.
“Welcome to Wrexham, in its attempt to serve two masters – those who understand the offside rule and those who couldn’t pick Gareth Bale out of a line-up – ends up feeling blandly corporate,” he wrote.
Season two premieres on 12 September on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.
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