Paramount and CBS sue the makers of the crowdfunded Star Trek film Axanar

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I suppose you can file this one under 'How Did It Not Happen Sooner?', but Paramount Pictures and CBS are suing the production team behind the Star Trek fan-film, Axanar. For those of you not up to snuff, a group of filmmakers created a pretty awesome little short film, Prelude to Axanar, in hopes that they could generate some revenue to do a feature film following Garth of Izar, the Starfleet captain who charted more planets that anyone else and was idolized by Kirk. They were successful in raising over $1 million through both Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Production was set to begin next month and now Paramount and CBS have stepped in citing copyright infringements.

Despite claims that no profits would be made any any merchandise, Blu-ray or other item, it seems that's not quite enough. Given the magnitude of such a "fan-film", you'd think this would've been something that had been cleared far in advance. Hell, the short film, Prelude to Axanar, was released back in July of 2014. I'm not sure why Paramount and CBS waited so long to step in (the new TV show, perhaps?), but this certainly doesn't bode well for the filmmakers, backers and Trek fans looking forward to something outside of the new movie canon.