By Cynthia Littleton
Business Editor
FX and Disney+ Latin America have ordered a docuseries that will revolve around Club Necaxa, the beloved Mexican soccer team, with Eva Longoria and the “Welcome to Wrexham” duo of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on board as executive producers and on-air stars.
The deal with FX/Disney+ comes three months after Reynolds and McElhenney joined Longoria as investors in Club Necaxa. Filming on the untitled series began today in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The team recently relocated to that city, known as “land of the good people,” after several rough seasons in Necaxa’s original home of Mexico City. The series will be bilingual in English and Spanish.
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The untitled series is patterened after FX’s “Welcome to Wrexham” series that chronicled the revitalization of a Welsh soccer team after Reynolds and McElhenney purchased the club in 2021.
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Per FX, the series will follow the Necaxa “as they strive to reclaim their place as one of Mexico’s top teams, while their Mexican-American owner Eva Longoria tries to breathe new life into the team by enlisting the help of her high-profile friends including new co-owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.”
Reynolds and McElhenney bought into the century-old Club Necaxa with the idea of taking the “Wrexham” template to another country. The pair are working with Longoria and fellow investors Al Tylis and Sam Porter to enhance Club Necaxa’s standing and grow its profile in international sports circles at a time of heightened TV and streaming demand for soccer content. Longoria helped bring Reynolds and McElhenney into the investor group.
The series will be produced by Longoria’s Hyphenate Media Group, the banner that she launched last year in partnership with Banijay executive Cris Abrego. Longoria, McElhenney, Reynolds and Abrego are executive producers along with Rachelle Mendez, Nick Frenkel, Jackie Cohn, George Dewey and Alex Fumero. In addition to Hyphenate Media Group, the untitled project will hail fromMore Better Productions, Maximum Effort Productions and 3 Arts Entertainment.
Reynolds, the “Deadpool” star who has a strong track record as an investor and entrepreneur, and McElhenney, the multi-hyphenate comedy auteur known for offbeat comedies “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Mythic Quest,” made the investment through their R.R. McReynolds Company, which owns Wrexham AFC.
FX’s “Welcome to Wrexham” launched its third season on May 2. That series has documented the revitalization of the hardscrabble town that accompanied the influx of capital for the storied team, which is one of the oldest football clubs in the world but had fallen on hard times. Season 1 of “Welcome to Wrexham” won five Emmy Awards for the 2023 awards year, including the trophy for best unstructured reality program.
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