What do Tusken Raiders look like under their mask? The messy Star Wars canon, explained

Once considered savage desert-dwellers, the Tusken Raiders have been reintroduced as a complex civilization in their own right. What started in The Mandalorian continues in The Book of Boba Fett as our titular bounty hunter earns the respect of a Tusken tribe, learning their traditions and culture along the way. But there’s one thing we still don’t know: What do Tusken Raiders look like under their masks?

There’s no official answer in the current Star Wars canon, but the saga’s messy history reveals a few intriguing options. So let’s take a closer look under the mask.

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What do Tusken Raiders look like? An enduring mystery

The Tusken Raiders first appeared in the original Star Wars movie, where Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to them as “Sand People” (do better, Geroge Lucas!), but their visage wasn’t directly commented on until a year later in Russ Manning’s classic Star Wars comics.

In a 1978 comic strip, Luke Skywalker prepares to unmask a “Sandman” after knocking him out. “I’m going to be the first human in 200 years to see what a Tusken Raider looks like... under his mask,” Luke exclaims. However, the answer wasn’t revealed for several more decades.

What do Tusken Raiders look like? Lost “Legends”

In more recent Star Wars “Legends” (the official name for non-canon stories that pre-date the Disney era), we’ve seen several Tusken Raiders unmasked. In 1993, the Star Wars trading card game included this image of a badass-looking Tusken:

In 1997, we got another look under the mask courtesy of the video game Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, which introduced a tribe called the Grave Tuskens, who apparently don’t wear masks at all:

Then, in 2004, Dark Horse Comics published a story revealing a more grisly version of an unmasked Tusken Raider:

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Scary stuff! Unfortunately, none of it is actually canon...

What do Tusken Raiders look like? It’s complicated

Boba Fett isn’t the first non-Tusken to be accepted into the tribe. In Star Wars Legends, there’s a long history of “humans” being accepted into Raider society. The most famous is likely A'Sharad Hett (aka, Darth Krayt), a Force-sensitive human who lived as both a Jedi and a Sith. Krayt’s face has been seen many times (though he also often wears an awesome helmet). For example:

So if the question is: What do Tusken Raiders look like under their mask? The answer may be anything you want them to — at least until The Book of Boba Fett sets the canon straight once and for all.

The Book of Boba Fett is streaming now on Disney+.