Rob McElhenney's 2nd FX show, Welcome to Wrexham, is currently airing its latest season. The show is a documentary and airs yearly to align with the latest soccer season, typically following Rob around across various months and highlighting his dedication as an owner of the club. This Thursday's episode, Hell Week, highlighted just how stretched Rob's schedule tends to be, taking us back and forth between his Wrexham obligations and his time filming Season 18 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Lucky for us, FX took the opportunity to push some cross promotion, giving us a great look at what was happening over a week in March on the Fox Lot (and beyond) for Sunny's latest season! While the segment overall was pretty short, the documentary featured many half-second clips, leading in with slates, for a few of the upcoming episodes:
By and large, #1804 was featured (which we know from the WGA was written by Rob Rosell and Vanessa McGee), showing a truly bizarre combination of scenes, from a Cricket-dwelling-looking location to the return of the Season 16 finale's antagonist, Tsuma:
Now if you're wondering "what is happening?" after looking at all of those shots, you're definitely not alone (I mean, Mac's bare ass is out, guys (Wrexham added that peach, not me)... and potentially... more?), but one great clue from these shots is the hat Dennis is wearing. If you think it looks familiar, you're probably familiar with the song "Virtual Insanity" by Jamiroquai (and if you aren't, go check out the song), and with that tip-off, you're probably able to put two and two together. This fever dream of an episode must be 2026: a Virtual Insanity.
(And as you may be able to see, the slate also names the director of the episode, Heath Cullens, who has been a regular director these past few seasons!)
The final scene of the first "highlight reel" of Rob's filming in March shows Mac in a classroom:
This is likely to be The Gang Gets Tested (given the, you know, test Mac seems to be taking) and in a fraction of a frame from this shot, we can see the scene starts with a "7," marking it as #1807, which is written by Charlie Day and Keyonna Taylor. (Unfortunately, the name of the director isn't legible in any frame.)
Seconds later in the latest Wrexham episode, Rob's schedule is "highlighted," and the schedule superimposes various moments from Sunny's filming, giving us a sneak peek at what very obviously is The Gang Goes to a Ren Faire!
COSTUMES!! (KNIGHT MAC!!!)
Again, Wrexham was gracious enough to include the slates in these miniature clips, so we are able to confirm that the Ren Faire episode is #1808, written by Dave & John Chernin and Rob Rosell, and directed by Richie Keen (who returns after being absent from Season 17)!
The schedule also gave us a brief look at a slate for #1802, which we already know the writer/director pairings of thanks to Rob's April Fools prank, but catch a few details of Mac sitting down at a dinner table:
Finally, we got a look at Rob watching a Wrexham game while on a break from filming (or waiting to be called). In this moment, we see him in a tux and bolo tie, identical to that of some of the first behind the scenes photos we got of the new Season. Andrew Friedman (Uncle Jack) is visible behind him, and also looks to be dressed in the same wardrobe we saw months ago!
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| (Ft. Showrunner!Charlie) |
And with all of this new information, you can be damned sure I went and updated my spreadsheet! As a quick reminder (or for those who haven't seen this thing before), the green is what we now know (with all but FX's confirmation), the yellow is more-than-likely, and the white is an informed guess (but hinges on vibes):
Given how many pieces of the puzzle we can now confidently fit in, I am much more heavily leaning toward David Hornsby having written The Guys Have a Sleepover (and ICYMI: the GIRLS seem to be having a sleepover, too!), hence why I've slotted that episode into #1806, and surely the Wrexham-forward title The Gang Buys a Baseball Team has to have Rob penning it, no?
Any thoughts on what these new pictures tell us about the latest season? Let me know! It truly seems like a chaotic masterpiece to me.
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