Why Do The Rings of Power Season 2’s Easterlings Wear Masks?

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2.

The Dark Wizard’s Easterling henchmen are among the most visually impressive new baddies in The Rings of Power‘s second season – thanks in large part to their striking headgear. But why do the Easterlings wear masks in The Rings of Power Season 2, exactly?

Why the Easterlings Wear Masks in The Rings of Power Season 2

The Easterlings – or to use the Dark Wizard’s name for these specific Easterlings, the Guadrim – seemingly wear masks because they’re badly disfigured. The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 2 hints at this during a scene in which the Gaudrim’s leader strikes a bargain with the Dark Wizard. He and his men will capture the Stranger in exchange for the Dark Wizard lifting “the curse upon [their] flesh.” But who’s responsible for the curse and its full extent (are their entire bodies affected, or just their heads) are questions Season 2 is yet to answer.

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Funnily enough, they’re also questions showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay didn’t necessarily have in mind while developing The Rings of Power‘s second season. In a recent Variety interview, McKay revealed that the Guadrim performers didn’t even wear masks during principal photography! “We worked endlessly on designs for these guys because we wanted it to be bizarre and otherworldly,” McKay recalled. “We had a lot of promising leads, but it was a lot of iteration and going in circles, and then we ran out of time.” Visual effects supervisor Jason Smith then proposed adding all-digital masks to the Guadrim’s faces during post-production, which Payne and McKay thought was a great idea.

Do the Easterlings Wear Masks in Tolkien’s Original Canon?

Nope – or at least, not like those in The Rings of Power Season 2. In his Lord of the Rings novels, J.R.R. Tolkien describes Easterling troops as armored – so presumably wearing some form of helmet – but also having part of their faces visible (that’s how we know they have beards). Plus, pretty much everything that happens in the Guadrim’s homeland, Rhûn, in The Rings of Power Season 2 is the invention of Payne, McKay, and their team. Tolkien wrote relatively little about what went down Rhûn during the Second Age, so if death’s head masks were fashionable in Rhun, there’s no record of it.

Related: The Rings of Power: Does Míriel Get Her Sight Back in the Books?

The same goes for the curse upon The Rings of Power Season 2’s Easterling riders. If someone (or something) was going around Rhûn putting hexes on people in OG Lord of the Rings canon, it’s not covered in the books themselves. Bottom line? Whatever Tolkien’s vision for the Easterlings’ headgear was, its design had nothing to do with them hiding magic-borne disfigurement!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is currently streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping Thursdays.