Every year since they’ve been friends and co-owners of Welsh football club Wrexham AFC, Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have given each other elaborate, left-of-field birthday presents.

McElhenney had a song written about him on how to pronounce his surname.

Reynolds had his face plastered at the Racehorse Ground as a birthday surprise after the once-failing club set a National League record and was promoted to the English Football League.

Together, they made the Disney+ US sports documentary series, Welcome to Wrexham, and are riding a wave of popularity across Britain.

No better time then to up the gift for Reynolds’ 47th birthday on October 23 than to stake a permanent marker on the small north Wales township of 150,000 people.

This year, writer and producer McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) had a lightbulb moment – to name a park in Wrexham after his buddy.

And who better to recruit to the project?

None other than the Green Lantern and Starlord superhero … and star of … yes, US sitcom Parks and Recreation, Chris Pratt.

Parks and Wrex

In a two-minute parody to announce the ambitious project, Pratt sits politely at a desk with a cup of tea in a nondescript office, and asks McElhenney, sitting opposite: “What am I doing here?”

McElhenney explains the history of birthday pranks to Pratt and how this year, he’s decided to donate a park in Wrexham in Reynolds’ honour.

Things suddenly start to become very clear: “Oh …. urgh … because I was on Parks and -“.

Cue music, and computer-generated 3D images of the Ryan Ronald Reynolds Memorial Park flash before our eyes.

The park will be on the former site of a two-screen cinema, the Wrexham Hippodrome, which played films for nearly 100 years before it burnt down in 2008.

On a website created for the project, parksandwrex.co.uk, we get a clearer picture of how they’re “working in close partnership with Wrexham County Borough Council”.

“We’re beautifying the park in the coming months to be a reflection of the spirit of Wrexham and Wales,” the unofficial department of Parks and Wrex says.

McElhenney promises that the “soon to be renamed” park will offer pop-up restaurants and movie screenings (we can see Reynolds’ Deadpool character on a screen in the background).

McElhenney tells Pratt – who starred in the 2011 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Green Lantern – there will also be “actual green lanterns, benches for old guys to swing on, and a statue that may or may not look like Ryan”.

It’s unclear when exactly the park will open, or when construction begins.

Only the “official announcement” date of October 23 was announced on a timeline at the bottom of the website, with the “break ground” and “park opening” dates both classified as “TBD [to be decided]”.

Council reaction

Wrexham council said the “plans had the potential” to create a family-oriented space, possibly with play facilities, tables and chairs, artworks, street food and community cinema, according to the BBC.

“We’ve had exactly the same ambition as Rob, to bring the space back into use as some sort of community park,” said Mark Pritchard, leader of Wrexham County Borough Council.

“The added bonus of having Rob and Ryan involved in the regeneration of the site with a few quirky ideas which only they can do is fantastic, and we’ll really look forward to working together as their plans develop,” he said.

If the plans are approved, the Ryan Rodney Reynolds Memorial Park would be redeveloped and maintained by the Wrexham AFC co-owners, council said.

RRR’s reaction?

Never to be outdone (and we’re still waiting for his other BBF Hugh Jackman to weigh in), Reynolds took to social media to acknowledge the generous gift.

“I’ll use this park to weep in whenever Wrexham AFC suffers a loss. And probably draws too,” he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

He also thanked Pratt for “shining” his “benevolence” on McElhenney.

And this on his Instagram: “Parks and Wrex!!! Rob McElhenney, I don’t know how you stuffed [Pratt] into your windowless panel-van and forced him into our little birthday charade but I’m grateful to you for eternity.

“You’ve completely and totally outdone yourself.”

He refers to the month of April at the end of both posts.

“April is right around the corner.”

McElhenney was born in the US city of Philadelphia on April 14, 1977.