Star Trek Fan Film ‘Axanar’ to Start Filming Again in October
Star Trek fan film “Axanar”
Controversial Star Trek fan film “Axanar” is due to start filming its next installments next month.
11Alive WXIA out of Atlanta, Georgia reported yesterday that two episodes following on from the popular fan film “Prelude to Axanar” will go into production October 4th through 6th. Star Trek actors J.G. Hertzler and Gary Graham will star in the episodes.
The “Axanar” production has not been without controversy. “Prelude to Axanar” was, by all standards, a wildly successful fan film, which made its debut at San Diego Comic Con in 2014, and has since racked up over 4 million views on YouTube. It was a documentary-style short film, presented as part of Federation documentary on the Four Years’ War with the Klingons. The Battle of Axanar was mentioned briefly in the canon Star Trek season 3 episode, “Whom Gods Destroy”.
The Kickstarter campaign funding “Prelude to Axanar” raised over $100,000, and the 20-minute film starred well-known actors Kate Vernon, Tony Todd, and Richard Hatch, in addition to Hertzler and Graham. After “Prelude”, the film’s creator, Alec Peters, set about raising money for the feature film, “Axanar”: it raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter.
And then Star Trek rights holders CBS and Paramount stepped in. According to Wikipedia, in December of 2015, they filed a lawsuit seeking damages for copyright infringement. In early 2017, the parties settled and Axanar was allowed to continue with production, as long as they complied with the newly-established Star Trek fan film guidelines, namely that they could produce no more than two episodes, of 15 minutes each.
Not long after, production of Axanar moved from California to Georgia, where it will now take place. According to 11Alive, “Scenes will be filmed at Ares Studios [...] in Lawrenceville.”
This article was written for the podcast Daily Star Trek News.
Alison Pitt is the writer, producer, and host of Daily Star Trek News, on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. A veteran Star Trek podcaster, she started her career on the weekly show Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast in 2015. She has appeared on panels at Star Trek Las Vegas, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic Con.
