I'm not saying a superior fan-film has the right to challenge the official item. But there will probably come a time when a studio might WANT TO embrace a superior fan-film.
Studios are huge corporations. They don't get butthurt like individual filmmakers when somebody else does their job better. (The most recent Fantastic-4 movie bombed and the studio was already soliciting advice about what to do with the franchise.) The studios won't want to give an inch when it comes to financial profit. But at some point a studio might be looking at more financial profit from embracing a fan-film version than squashing it. What then?
I repeat, it won't be Axanar.
It won't be any fan-film that we've seen so far.
It may not be involving any currently active franchise we know of.
But sooner or later I think it will happen.
. . . or maybe it will prove to be a loophole allowing studios to get around using Unions . . . .
Nope.
Nope.
Not gonna happen.
First off, a studio will never take a fan production of something existing and release it as-is. There are way way too many legalities involved, not to mention the union stuff. For a union production, you need funding. Sure, Axanar had some, but since their funding was not used in the way a professional film uses funding even on a lower budget film, they do not count in this instance. They also did not use union people under a union contract. Hell, they didn't even pay most of the people who did the heavy lifting on production.
Here is an example of a case that actually happened. A good friend of mine sold her completed film. The studio bought it, decided to do reshoots on it. In the end, they entirely replaced the lead character with a 'name' actor. They also spent time and money negotiating the soundtrack which used all unknown bands (including my brother). All contracts that the artists held with her production company were rendered void by the way the deal was written and everyone ended up with a giant wad of nothing, despite her thinking this was good for everyone. Even she has not been paid because of 'loopholes' saying she gets paid when it gets released and four years later it's no closer to being released. So now she has a movie she worked on and finished with a completed soundtrack that she could have released as an indie film but instead got seduced by a big studio deal that screwed everyone over.
THAT is how Hollywood works. It's not in it for innovation or creative concepts or the little guy, it is all about the bottom line. And honestly? That's how it should be. It's a business, and with how the business is run there is NO WAY they are going to open themselves up to a fan production of their assets, no matter how good.
Could it open doors for those involved? Sure. I've gotten major auditions based on my reel which includes a lot of fan production stuff. I've been able to use my behind-the-camera skills I honed on set to become part of my daily job. I've met people who have given me opportunities. But most of all, I have had fun playing in the Star Trek, Star Wars and Firefly worlds by being in or making fan productions of them.
Now, RtW and unions... this is another tricky matter. Here:
https://www.sagaftra.org/new-orleans-local/local-resources/union-vs-non-union-rtw-state. Now,I am in a RtW state. I am also union-eligible and have been for years. My next union movie role will force me to become union, but most of my work is non-union because I do a lot of regional/local commercial work and industrials with some indie film thrown in sometimes for fun. Almost all VO work is non-union in this market. I have yet to book a union job for voice and I am thinking they may not exist around here. I have, however, worked on a few union projects and have been an extra on somewhere around 50. (Hey, extra work is fun!) The way you are treated on non-union sets is vastly different than union. Union sets tend to run like clockwork. Everyone is there to get paid and get home. Non-union stuff tends to be more lax. It tends to be more lax on things like break time and feeding you, though, and you have no recourse. There are also a lot of other things.
I grew up in Detroit. I know all about unions. Most of my family members and friends are in jobs that require you to join a union. I've seen the good and the bad. I see the corruption and the way they can screw members over. I've seen the results of not having a union to fall back on. Neither side is a great one, but they are a necessary thing around here. Making Axanar into a studio production would be like coming into Detroit to open a car factory without having a professional car-factory-experienced person in charge and not using any union workers. You wouldn't get far and you'd fail miserably, even if the cars themselves weren't bad.
TL;DR: Neither Axanar or any other fan production will ever be bought and released by a studio.