Netflix’s Luke Cage Villain Is Vegan

Actor Mustafa Shakir might play villain John “Bushmaster McIver in season two of Netflix’s hit series Luke Cage, but this on-screen bad guy follows a compassionate vegan diet in real life.

The actor credits his plant-based diet made up of beans, fruit, and vegetables for his incredible stunts. Playing Bushmaster, a Jamaican gang leader known for his street-fighting skills, requires Shakir to follow a rigorous exercise regimen and “strict diet.

The actor recently posted on Instagram: “Some ask me is it hard being vegan/eating well? … To those people that wonder I say, ‘Would you put regular unleaded gas in your Bentley?’ [Probably] not.

Shakir isn’t the only vegan on the Luke Cage set. He joins Simone Missick, who plays Misty Knight, and Dorian Missick, who plays the gangster Cockroach.

Switching to a plant-based diet is a great way to get in shape. While “bulking up for his recent roles in Thor and The Avengers, Chris Hemsworth decided to go vegan. And more recently, Zac Efron told Teen Vogue he’d “been experimenting with eating purely vegan.

Eating vegan is one of the best ways to stay healthy. In fact, experts have discovered that a plant-based diet reduces one’s risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. What’s more, researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that long-term vegetarians lived on average 3.6 years longer than their meat-eating counterparts.

Countless professional athletes have reaped the benefits of a vegan diet, including NFL players David Carter and Colin Kaepernick, bodybuilder and strongman competitor Patrik Baboumian, and tennis champ Serena Williams.

Don’t believe us? Watch this video of badass professional vegan athletes!


But eating vegan foods isn’t just great for your health; it also protects the planet and spares farmed animals a life of misery.

From throwing chicks into macerators to tearing baby cows from their mothers, the factory farming industry routinely abuses animals. What’s worse, this systematic torture is 100 percent legal.


Improve your health and help protect animals by switching to a vegan diet. Click here to get started. And check out our Pinterest page for thousands of recipe ideas.