South Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney dishes on 'Welcome to Wrexham' Season 3

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The much-anticipated Season 3 of "Welcome to Wrexham" premieres May 2 on FX.

South Philly's own Rob McElhenney dishes about the exciting new, real time twist to this new season and the unexpected way that the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star and "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds got the whole world to root for a Welsh soccer team.

"One of the biggest compliments that I get is that I hear from people all over the world who will say to me, 'I didn't think I was a football fan. I certainly wasn't even a sports fan, and yet I love the show'," McElhenney said.

McElhenney says maybe that's because, at the core, "Welcome to Wrexham" is an underdog story. And it's certainly one that hits close to home.

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"A huge part of the endeavor when we were looking for a football team, was I wanted to find a town that felt like Philly in so many ways," he says. "A European version of Philadelphia. I wanted to a find a working class, blue collar town, who really loved their sports, and felt like football was an indelible part of the community. That's what Wrexham is and that's what Philadelphia is."

Last season, McElhenney had a chance to bring his team from Wales to his home turf when Wrexham A.F.C. played the Union 2 here in Chester.

"It was surreal," he says. "It was truly a dream come true to be able to bring my football team home to the town that I grew up in. It was a true honor."

McElhenney and Wrexham A.F.C co-owner and actor Ryan Reynolds are now giving us the show in real time, for the first time.

"One of the most important and exciting aspects of this season versus the last few seasons is that the documentary will catch up with the end of the football season," McElhenney says. "Anybody who's a fan of the show will not know what happens at the end, including us. We'll be editing in real time in the parking lot of the stadium."

Here's a fun fact, McElhenney and Reynolds didn't know each other before they teamed up for this adventure.

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"We'd never met," McElhenney laughs. "We became friends via social media. He slid into my DMs a few years back, telling me how much he enjoyed an episode of 'Sunny.' I didn't even know he watched 'Sunny.' Obviously, I was a big fan of his."

And now, they've given us a team that everyone is rooting for.

In true Philly style, McElhenney says there are "Rocky" references to Wrexham's journey.

"'Rocky 1,' he loses, and Season 1 we lost," McElhenney says. "'Rocky 2' he won, and Season 2 we won."

"Now here we are in Season 3," Reynolds says. "It will be a very harrowing, edge-of-your-seat season."

Season 3 of "Welcome to Wrexham" premieres with two episodes, Thursday night at 10 p.m. on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.