1.

Introduction of Marvel 

  Marvel has not only redefined superhero movies, but also raised around $17 billion in a
decade from 22 movies. Therefore it may be hard for you to imagine such a giant movie
studio having to go through difficult times once, with its share price remaining at $1.
However, Marvel, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was able to rise again using
the following strategy: “customer and product diversification”.

  So why is this strategy that raised Marvel important? In fact, the strategy of diversifying
customers and products may be quite dangerous. This is because it is impossible to fully
figure out what products will work in the complex world of business. Nevertheless, this
strategy is attractive to companies in that there are many channels that will boost their sales
once they succeed in diversifying their customers and products, which can greatly contribute
to the development and survival of the company.

  How could Marvel succeed from this strategy? Marvel had initially attempted a theme
restaurant-like strategy to overcome falling demand for comic books, but the sequence
seemed out of order. Other than fanatic fans, who were obsessed with Marvel’s cartoons and
characters, people didn't use the restaurant well, and neither did the fans. Besides such initial
strategy, naturally, the company's situation seemed to revive through the film. Movies like
Spider-Man, Blade, and X-Men have been successful. However, most of the profits went to
the film companies such as Fox, Sony, and etc that made the film, leaving Marvel in a
situation that was no different from before.

  Marvel's resurrection happens after when Marvel recognized that their characters surely did
have tremendous value. So Marvel began planning from a more long-term perspective and
decided to make his own film company. That's how Marvel Studios was born.

2. Beginning of  Iron Man

  Iron Man definitely is one of the major globally loved superheroes. With Robert Downey Jr.
playing Tony Stark, Iron Man was first released in 2008, thus launching the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. This was a risky gamble to Marvel Studios, as Iron Man was a B-list
superhero at the time. Iron Man wasn’t popular and its awareness ranking wasn’t that high.
Then how did Marvel come up with this character to begin their bold new venture? One big
reason was that Iron Man had the coolest toys. 

  Marvel actually carried out a marketing research, asking which superhero figure kids were
playing with the most, under the hope of breaking even on the Marvel movies, but generate
on toys and merchandise. What was interesting was that it was a clear victory for Iron Man.
Kids thought that when considering Iron Man’s power, ability, and possessing weapons, Iron
Man seemed to be the utmost character to play with. It was from this simple research from
which Tony Stark started to take the leading position and become the first hero out of the gate
for Marvel's fledgling studio.

  Also, Iron Man’s suit of armor seems to be more aesthetic and even provides diverse
functions, such as flying and boosting. In fact, we cannot neglect the fact that Marvel could
have thought that it would be easier to make numerous kinds of action figures, since Tony
Stark has the capability to design different types of armors. Luckily, these different facets met
with a creatively successful movie and an innovative mover. 
 
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2419732/how-marvel-decided-iron-man-would-be-
its-first-superhero-movie

3. Identify a Problem

Iron Man surely was the first and successful superhero Marvel had gambled upon.
Now, with only Iron Man movies, MCU was able to generate more than billions of dollars
worldwide. However Marvel killed off Iron Man in the latest film, Avengers: End Game. We
see that there’s no one as similar to Iron Man, when considering his technological and money
power. Still, there will be other characters who will be replacing the role of Tony Stark. Then
we became curious about, “Who then, will be the next Iron Man, filling up the vacant
position?” We thought that when considering that Iron Man playing has played a very crucial
role and most of the times has been the center among all the superheroes, the next Iron Man
should also be competitive enough to take such role. Therefore, to achieve the most realistic
and possible answer to our question. We decided to consider personal ties, exposure, --- into
account, utilizing network measures

4. Set Hypotheses

Before we delve into analyzing the network, we would like to generate possible
hypotheses to this question. In doing so, we should also consider several reasons as to why
Marvel had to kill off Iron Man, despite the fact that he is one of the most influential and
crucial heroes among all the characters of Marvel Studios and generates the most profit. We
do not think that the Endgame writers simply killed off Iron Man with no reason.

First, we think it was the right timing to have Iron Man dead, for a heroic storyline.
End always has a special meaning in that it cements everything, threading them all together
and brings it to a crescendo. As he was the one who started the chapter, he needed to end this
chapter. It was a satisfying conclusion. It was the right timing to legitimize the whole thing.
In fact, Tony was able to make Iron Man seem more heroic, since while he manages to save
the world, it was at the cost of his own life. The intention was not to destroy people, it was to
hopefully tell a complex and dimensionalised story in a way that makes them feel a varied
range of emotion. In fact, if MCU had not killed off Iron Man, and Iron Man 4 was waiting
there, there is possibility for several audiences to think it’s too much.

We also thought that Marvel has decided to kill Iron Man, because of the tremendous
amount at which Iron Man’s net worth has been valued. Starting from Iron Man 1, Robert
Downey Jr.’ was paid $500,000 and it kept skyrocketing, until recently when he filmed
Avengers: Infinity War and was calculated as 75 million. At the same time, while Tony
started as the brash billionaire playboy, stakes and responsibilities were growing for him.
 Yet, surprisingly, Iron Man wasn’t the highest salary given superhero. According to
the Forbes’ Celebrity 100 earnings list, Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor, topped the list
even receiving more than Robert Downey Jr. by more than $10m. Hemsworth started out with
$150,000 for 2011's "Thor," but has earned $15 million a movie since 2017's "Thor:
Ragnarok." The secret to his big payday is that he also gets profit from the superhero flick,
earning from the percentage of box office as well. Moreover, he starred in “Men in Black:
International” and will portray in an upcoming biopic about Hulk Hogan and a Netflix movie
called Dhaka. This somehow implies that Thor is not only one of the critical members in
MCU, but also being acknowledged within the industry, since he keeps shooting new films.
There surely is more demand for Thor. Thus we think Thor has a really high possibility of
becoming the next Iron Man.

Rank Actor Role Salary Forbes ranking

1 Chris Hemsworth Thor $76.4 million 24/100
2 Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man $66 million 31/100
3 Bradley Cooper Rocket $57 million 43/100
4 Scarlett Johansson Black Widow $56 million 47/100
5 Chris Evans Captain America $43.5 million 73/100
6 Paul Rudd Ant-Man $41 million 83/100

Moreover, we should consider how much each character generates profit globally for
Marvel. We thought that the higher worldwide revenue the character makes, the higher
possibility of that character being casted as the next Iron Man. Below graph shows each
MCU Film’s worldwide revenue, ranked from the highest to low.

Rank Film Worldwide Revenue Superhero

1~4 Avengers Series(Avengers: $2,797,800,564 Avengers

Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War,
The Avengers, Avenger: Age of $2,048,359,754
Ultron)
$1,518,812,988

$1,405,403,694

5 Black Panther $1,346,913,171 Black Panther

6 Iron Man 3 $1,214,811,252 Iron Man

7 Captain America: Civil War $1,153,304,495 Captain America

8 Spider Man: Far From Home $1,131,927,996 SpiderMan

9 Captain Marvel $1,128,274,794 Captain Marvel

10 Spider Man: Homecoming $880,166,924 Spider Man

 11 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 $863,756,051 Guardians of the
Galaxy

12 Thor: Ragnarok $853,977,126 Thor

We would have to exclude the Avenger series, since it’s obvious that they generate
the most money as they have all the characters appear in the film. The next up is Black
Panther, Iron Man, and right below Iron Man is Captain America. Yet we would also have to
exclude Captain America, since Chris Evans, the actor of Captain America, decided to retire
from his role after 8 years. Besides, Captain America: Civil War was a film where all the
other superheroes have appeared like in the Avengers series. Therefore, it might be not
precise to consider this movie successful solely because Captain America’s role was crucial
or his popularity was high.

Then what are left with? We were surprised with the result, since it wasn’t Spider
Man nor Iron Man, but Black Panther to kick off the most from the box office. As for the key
factor in driving success for Black Panther, Black Panther represented both a big budget,
black led superhero flick written and directed by black filmmakers and telling a culturally
specific African folktale. It has value in that it was the first movie offered to a fanbase with
an explicit interest in that specific property. It surely was a supply meeting the demand. In
fact, Black Panther is expected to be released in 2022. Moreover, in the latest Avengers: End
Game, Black Panther now occupies a larger portion, making more important decisions in the
movie, thus affecting the whole Marvel superhero world. Therefore, we expect another
possible candidate as Black Panther.

At the same time, we cannot neglect another well known superhero, Spider Man.
Right below Captain America, we can see Spider Man generating $1,131,927,996. Although
his ranking might be quite low when compared to Black Panther or Iron Man, within the
ranking of MCU Revenue and superhero film franchises at the box office, Spider Man is also
one of the top listed films. Moreover, despite the recent deal failure between Marvel and
Sony, Spider Man keeps appearing in MCU and is expected to continuously appear in the
future as well. This indicates that MCU is not willing to give up on the Spider Man character
and wants to utilize it for the next several years. Therefore, we concluded that we can also
take Spider into account as well.

Overall, Marvel acknowledged that they cannot go with Iron Man forever. Therefore,
in order to make long term Marvel series, Marvel has decided to kill off Iron Man and create
rooms for the next Iron Man. For the possible candidates, considering net worth and revenue
rankings, we expect Thor, Black Panther, and Spider Man as the possible candidates.