Fan Casting Kingpin in Joe Carnahan's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear

Wilson Fisk was born in poverty in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Even as a boy he was uncommonly large. Instead of playing with the other kids his age, he spent long hours in the public library, reading as much as he could on business theory, politics, and organized crime. Even at a young age, he was intrigued by the idea of becoming a "kingpin of crime", gaining power behind the scenes. As a teen, Fisk turned his attention towards his physical regimen. Stealing passage on a freighter to Japan, he enrolled in a sumo wrestling school. He even competed professionally for a short time before retiring at the rank of ozeki (one rank below the coveted yokozuna level). Returning to New York, he invested his earnings from his professional sumo career into a number of legitimate businesses while at the same time using his physical bulk and intelligence to take control of a number of small, unaffiliated criminal gangs. The first business he owned outright was a firm which dealt with importing exotic spices from the Orient; to this day, even with his own corporation bearing his name, he still humbly insists that he's "a meager spice merchant." About two decades ago, he met a young French woman named Vanessa; Vanessa's age at the time has not yet been revealed, but she is at least fifteen years Wilson's junior. Vanessa has been aware of her husband's criminal dealings for a long time. The Kingpin has stated that Vanessa is the only person who can make him feel at peace.