The fan productions Prelude to Axanar and Star Trek: Axanar look back on a conflict-riddled history that even Star Trek stars went public with.
More than ten years ago, the Star Trek fan film Prelude to Axanar was released. At the time, none of those involved could have imagined the waves that the crowdfunding-financed short film would make. Its release led to an ongoing Star Trek legal battle that continues to this day and attracted a great deal of public attention. We tell you the incredible success story of a group of fans and their own Star Trek movie.
“Star Trek as it should be”: Prelude to Axanar thrilled Trekkies
Prelude to Axanar and the announced sequel also deal with the battle for Axanar, which is only mentioned in a single sentence in the series Star Trek. It is about the Federation’s four-year war against the Klingon Empire. You can watch the entire movie for free on YouTube or right here in the article:
Part of the cast included Gary Graham as Vulcan Soval and J.G. Hetzler as Klingon Martok, who also embodied their roles in the Star Trek canon. Despite the rather unusual style as a documentary, fans are still enthusiastic today: “The best Star Trek in a long time” and “Star Trek as it should be” are just a few excerpts from the YouTube comments in which Trekkies praise the short film.
Axanar was sued by the real Star Trek rights holders
In 2016, it seemed as if the legal battle had been put aside. CBS and Paramount dropped their copyright lawsuit and instead published a new set of rules on the official Star Trek homepage that was supposed to regulate fan productions more closely from now on. Among other things, these rules exclude commercial projects or productions longer than 15 minutes.
In 2023, however, the matter went back to court because the creators of Prelude to Axanar are currently producing the next fan film called Star Trek: Axanar. Plagiarism Today reports on violations of the conditions and a new fine that was imposed on the Axanar creators for their second film.
For more than ten years, fans have been waiting for the sequel to Prelude to Axanar, for which almost $600,000 was crowdfunded. Some see the production as an impressive example of fan productions. Others believe that the team has been unapologetic and has thus created unnecessary hurdles for fan productions.
Either way, no other fan product has attracted as much prominent support as Star Trek: Axanar. As AV Club reports, none other than Star Trek director J.J. Abrams himself pledged his support to the film. And George Takei, known as Sulu from Star Trek, shared the crowdfunding campaign on his personal page, as reported by Space.
The sequel may be released this summer
In a video statement, Axanar director Alec Peters reports on the production of Axanar. According to him, the project is well into post-production and could possibly be released this summer.
Until then, you can catch up on the first part. The 21 minutes tell the historical story of the Battle of Axanar in a documentary style and are full of attention to detail. It’s obvious that real enthusiasts were at work here.
