Like most brands that are around for multiple generations, male grooming product company Old Spice needed a younger, hipper refresh of its identity in the 2010s. As part of that aim, the company enlisted former NFL player and up-and-coming actor Isaiah Mustafa to star in its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad campaign. The campaign was extremely popular, not only helping the sales of Old Spice but also catapulting Mustafa — who’d appear in various commercials for Old Spice through 2015– to a higher level of celebrity.
Once a popular ad campaign runs its course, people are left asking what happened to the actors from those commercials. As mentioned, Mustafa had already began dabbling in acting prior to his Old Spice gig, and he doubled down on that career once he was done pitching deodorant and body wash. Among his most high-profile roles was one of the leads on the Freeform fantasy series “Shadowhunters,” which ran for three seasons from its premiere in 2016 to its ending in 2019.
Isaiah Mustafa played Luke Garroway in Shadowhunters
“Shadowhunters” follows the titular line of half-human, half-angel demon hunters. More specifically, it centers on a teenager named Clary Fray (Katherine McNamara), who finds out that she herself is a Shadowhunter. Isaiah Mustafa plays Luke Garroway, an NYC police officer by day and werewolf by night who used to be a Shadowhunter. The series is based on the “Mortal Instruments” book series — which may or may not have its roots in fan fiction — and narratively starts where the books start.
“The Mortal Instruments” was originally meant to be a film series, though those plans were scrapped after the first movie — “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” — underperformed at the box office. Instead, the franchise was moved to the small screen, and it was decided to just reboot entirely rather than follow up the movie. To that end, “Shadowhunters” is definitely the better adaptation of the material, with the TV show format allowing for deeper exploration of the characters and lore, as well as including many of the elements that were left out of the film due to lack of time.
Unfortunately, the series also didn’t last the way it was intended, and as of yet, it’s the most recent “Mortal Instruments” project to see a screen adaptation. But it’s still worth checking out for all the things it does right in adapting the books, and had found its way to a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes by Season 3.