A Theory on 1-dimensional guards

I always wondered why Thallo's men were so under-used and undeveloped, as well as silent and facially hidden - especially as in the comic book adaptation I had, they all had names and dialogue, as well as helmets not concealing their whole faces.

And then it occured to me. It was so that the producers didn't have to look for several all-round actors to play them, and could change the people playing them depending on the circumstances of the scene.

For example, in the journey scenes they could have just hired 4 expert horsemen, for the Medusa scene, combat experts and stunt men, and the one left for the scorpion battle a stunt actor. So several different people could have played the soldiers at different times without us knowing.

A big giveaway also is the 2 you see without their helmets are none of the un-helmeted men you saw lined up with Thallo before the quest began. There was one bearded guy there, but it wasn't the one who fought the scorpion.

I always looked at this as a lost opportunity for some more supporting characters, as they were on screen far too long to be played by men with no dialogue or revealed faces. They just ended up as throwaway characters for the monsters, but could have had some meaning at the same time. Even Stormtroopers had more life given to them than this bunch, and the guys under the helmets must look back in retrospect wandering why they were playing nothing more than cardboard cut-outs.