Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny had big dreams when they purchased the Wrexham AFC, with promises to improve one of the oldest professional football clubs in the world. Their journey has been an interesting and informative one to watch, too, as they document it all on the FX series Welcome to Wrexham, and the Deadpool and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stars have even earned an Emmy nomination. With Season 2 underway, however, fans are calling out the show for some decidedly not-award-worthy behavior, after possibly trying to pass off an A.I.-generated image as a historical photo.
Welcome to Wrexham isn’t your average sports docuseries. Buoyed by the comedy you’d expect from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the show explores not just the football team’s performance on the field but also the history of the Welsh coal-mining town, highlighting the importance of the relationship between the locals and their club. Historical footage is nothing new to the series, but one image in particular from the current season has caused quite a bit of debate. See for yourself:
TV show 'Welcome to Wrexham' just tried to pass this off as a real photo. What do you reckon? from r/midjourney
The Redditor who posted the original image asked other Welcome to Wrexham viewers to weigh in on the above photo, pointing out:
I think that's a floating beer mug left of centre.
Indeed the man in the middle seems to be triple-fisting it, with a beverage in each hand and a third floating above his right hand. That wasn’t the only fishy part that people noticed, however. Often the hands and faces of people can be a clear indicator that a photo was created by artificial intelligence, and other comments under the pic included:
- The two bearded guys in the center-right share an arm AND a leg. Weird condition. – Jimmeu
- It’s an AI generated image. The hands are a dead give away – Lazy_Independence983
- Zoom in and check out all the hands. Definitely some AI claws in there – Puzzleheaded-bad-923
- What annoys me the most is they just put it in there as is. Right from midjourney to the show. No photoshop, no fixing any of the obvious mistakes, not even adding grain to the photo. – blackbauer222
- Aside from the guy with both his eyes gouged out, the mangled hands everywhere, the floating beer steins, and the troll on the right... I'd say pretty good! – ButWhatOfGlen
There are definitely some gnarly things happening in this photograph, but not all viewers agreed that the image appeared fully fabricated. Many pointed out that the long exposure time of old cameras could be to blame for the “floating” tankard and distorted faces. Others argued that the center of the photo might be authentic, with A.I. being used on the sides to extend the image to a different aspect ratio.
Nearly all the commenters did agree that there was some aspect of artificial intelligence used, though, and with no word yet from the A-list owners, we’re left to speculate how much and why.
One thing’s for sure — people are going to be keeping a closer eye on any additional images portrayed of old-town Wrexham from here on out! You can catch new episodes of Welcome to Wrexham at 10 p.m. ET Tuesdays on FX or stream both seasons with a Hulu subscription. Also be sure to check out our 2023 TV schedule to keep up with all of the upcoming premiere.
