On Wednesday, Gary Graham announced that he will no longer be playing Soval in the two Axanar sequels. This was what Gary posted to Facebook:
For those who wish to know… ‘What happened…”. It’s complicated… and I don’t wish to malign anyone — The parting was amenable. I just weighed the amount Alec was willing to pay me versus the career liability my association with the Axanar Project was beginning to incur… And…. Risk needs to be compensated. And we just had a disagreement….over what that compensation should be…. and neither party would budge. The end.
I have nothing but respect for Gary as an actor and a person. He’s always been very easy to work with, willing to put his all into this project, and intensely supportive of Axanar even through the darkest days of the lawsuit. I wish him nothing but the best, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for helping to make Prelude and the Vulcan Scene.
As to Gary’s comments as to compensation, well, we are limited by practicalities of our finances, the settlement agreement with CBS/Paramount and the Star Trek Fan Film Guidelines, and Gary’s salary request was outside what we were able to do.
The entire Axanar team wishes Gary all the best in his career. These kinds of things happen all the time in the industry, and there’s really no hard feelings. This is an amicable parting of the ways.
Axanar will still proceed, and we are happy to say that Soval’s lines in the final segments will be given to Sarek, who is a character in the full Axanar script, and Soval’s protege. We already have an amazing actor for that role and we are sure fans will love the final product.
I was saddened to hear this news, but understand the difficulties being faced by all parties. I’m glad there is still a viable path moving forward and look forward to the finished product. LLAP