We have had a long-standing policy of closing "future works" questions as POB.
What is unclear, and seemingly disagreed upon is exactly what constitutes a "future work".
Is it works that we know for sure will exist/be released? Things we assume will exist/be released? Things that just maybe will exist/be released?
Where do we draw the line? Even a work that we know is coming may not answer a question as we assume it will. Do we close those questions as future works?
To formalize my comments above:
Any works that aren't available to pull canon from are FWP. Every single variant listed in the question (Is it works that we know for sure will exist/be released? Things we assume will exist/be released? Things that just maybe will exist/be released?) are FWP.
The only relevant criteria for FWP is "The answer cannot be given to the question until and unless a specific future work is released and its contents would offer the answer". The timing or likelyhood of such future work is irelevant.
However, there's one notable exclusion: canon in progress.
More specifically -
If a specific canon has some published works already
And it also has some future works (planned, maybe, or unknown)
And, the question is phrased specifically so that it can be answered in the context of already published works
Then, such question is not FWP, even though in theory there are future works that may alter answers to such a question.
Just to be clear, any questions very specific to not-yet-published canon are still FWP, as per the first rule.
To clarify, specific examples. Assume the time frame to be 2018, after release of Star Wars episode 7 and 8, but before release of Episode 9. And we don't yet know if they will do 10-12 aside from vague rumours.
"In Episode 8, did Spoiler spoiler the Spoiler?"
On-topic, since Episode 8 is released.
"In Episode 9, did Spoiler spoiler the Spoiler?"
VTC as future works, since Episode 9 is not released yet; and the question cannot be answered well from episode 8.
"In Star Wars, did Spoiler spoiler the Spoiler?"
On-topic, since the answer isn't bound to unreleased works. We can answer it based on Episodes 1-8.
"No answer known yet but may be revealed in future works" is an excellent answer but NOT a valid reason to VTC
This is a bit difficult to do with precision in all cases, as some questions may be borderline (in a sense of, it may ask about something technically about Episode 8, but to any canon expert, it's clear that the answer will be unknown till Episode 9 - personally I'd be OK with FWPing such a question but wouldn't be heartbroken if it stays open).
To try to illustrate by example again:
"Did *Character who was seen dying in Episode 8" really die?"
FWP, since the answer is impossible until Episode 9 is released.
"Who are Rey's parents?"
VALID. NOT FWP. Because even though we may have a better answer from Episode 9, we already have enough canon info from Episodes 7-8 to be able to answer this.
To illustrate why this is the right policy, Let's look at Star Wars franchise.
If we scope this policy any differently (e.g, we close as FW any general franchise question not explicitly localized to unreleased item), it means that 100% of new questions about Star Wars should be closed until entire franchise completes including all future books and comics - even questions about Episode VII specifically are likely to have an answer "don't know yet; but may be answered in Episode IX" (and, we have a firm policy that a question should not be treated differently based on whether it has an answer or not; which means we can't distinguish differently between E7 questions that have an answer and E7 questions that don't YET have an answer but may get one in E9).
P.S. @phantom42 just posted another answer to this Meta question. As per our comment discussion, there seems to be little to no difference between the policy proposed in their answer and in this answer here - the answer differ in wording and explanation, but the policy is pretty much the same.
100% of new questions about Star Wars should be closed until entire franchise completes including all future books and comics This is an incredibly naive viewpoint to have. One could very easily ask a question that is clearly answered in a released work without needing a future work to outline the details. If you're convinced this isn't the case I question what site you've been looking at.
Commented
May 3, 2018 at 7:46
While those questions are on-topic, the likelihood for these questions to be answered in the next/later instalment of the series is incredibly high. because we've consistently seen where sequels refuse to answer questions that previous films elicited. There's no "incredibly high likelihood", there's just "incredibly high hope". We should not be closing questions on speculation, especially considering the wealth of outside material available these days (tie-ins, comics, books, cast/crew interviews, directly contacting creators).
Let's first look at the questions that inspired the original Future Works discussion.
With the exception of the Magneto question, all of the questions are ones with blatantly obvious answers if the OP would just wait until the work was released. Until that time, the best we could do is speculate - sometimes good, logical, informed speculation - but speculation, nonetheless.
Some of these questions were generating a lot of back and forth discussion for absolutely no reason, other than the fact that we were discussing things based off of intentionally incomplete information. OPs were asking about things in trailers, and about movies which hadn't even been written yet.
We knew for sure that just waiting until the movies were released, we'd learn the plot of Star Wars Episode 7, or why Batman and Superman were fighting, or how the X-Men would defeat Apocalypse. By waiting, we could also pretty safely bet that we'd learn more about the Hulkbuster's pilot (though, this was kind of moot since we already had leaked information that answered this), or get a better explanation as to how Magneto was pulling Mystique. All we had to do was wait.
So, we created the Future Works Policy, shunting these sort of questions until a later date.
In today's world of reboots, revivals, and sequels, the fact is that almost any question could theoretically get an answer at a later date. We shouldn't just close questions because they might get an answer later. We need some sort of likelihood of an answer. It's important to remember that not everything is a Chekhov's Gun, and may not be addressed later.
Franchises like Star Wars have sort of spoiled us. Every character has a backstory, and on a long enough timeline, just about every character will have their backstory written about, no matter how fleeting their part in the movie. But we don't know for sure that we'll ever learn what age Biggs and Luke met. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. To date, there has been nothing to indicate that we actually will. Conversely, as I understand it, we do have ample reason right now to believe we'll learn how Han Solo and Lando met (I haven't watched the trailers, myself).
Similarly, the Russo brothers have promised that we'll get a better explanation as to the whereabouts of Ant-Man and Hawkeye at a later date.
We established long ago that questions without canonical answers are just fine. Sometimes, we just don't know the answer, and it's perfectly ok to say that as an answer. Logical Speculation is ok. If it's not Future Works, answer to the best of your ability. That might mean saying, "based on these canon bodies of works, there's just no clear answer" or "nothing definitive is ever stated, but there's strong evidence pointing to [this]."
I'd say that anything based on trailers, specifically about announced works, or otherwise outright promised by someone authoritative that we'll get an answer later would be defined as Future Works.
Questions about elements merely set up for possible later attention or answer should not be defined as Future Works.
Future Works: How will the ending of Infinity War be dealt with in Avengers 4?
Not Future Works: Where did Groot get his video game?
Future Works: Why does Cable want to kill the kid in Deadpool 2?
Not Future Works: How did Wade Wilson become a mercenary assassin in the XCU?
This is how I would state what a "future work" is:
"A work that has a reasonable expectation of being released at the time the question is asked that will likely to contain an answer to the question."
Now breaking that down we need to define a few more things:
As I was writing this I saw a comment that is relevant and I agree with... If a question can be answered with existing canon, the future work policy would not apply.
Also keep in mind, that as we strive to be good stewards of our community, that we need to explain this to new users, and help them along in posting good questions. I would make it a point to any OP that closure is not permanent, and that if someone comes along with an answer the question can be reopened in short order. I don't have any data offhand to back it up, but my personal experience has been that we as community have a good track record of doing just that.
