Warning! Very light spoilers ahead for The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 1.
In the Star Wars universe, you need a spaceship, a hyperdrive, and coaxium if you want to travel faster that the speed of light. But there’s one exception to that rule: the purrgil. These majestic space whales can travel through hyperspace without any fancy technology. Until now, we’ve only seen them in non-live-action Star Wars. The Mandalorian Season 3 just changed that, and it could have huge implications for the franchise’s future. Here’s what you need to know.
Purrgil in The Mandalorian Season 3
We see these space whales briefly in The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 1 when Din Djarin (aka, Mando) and Grogu (aka, Baby Yoda) travel through hyperspace. While Mando gets some shut-eye, Grogu observes what looks like the outline of several massive creatures flying next to the ship. We can’t see them very clearly, but any Star Wars diehard fan will tell you that those are purrgil.
Purrgil in Star Wars
The purrgil are semi-sentient space whales with smooth purple skin, fins, and tentacles. A standard Purrgil is about the same size as a starship, but they also get much bigger. They live in groups and are capable of traveling through hyperspace on their own, which is what originally inspired the invention of the hyperdrive in the Star Wars universe.
Notably, for our purposes, purrgil are also known for flying near spaceships. This has actually caused problems, with the space whales causing some crashes as a result. Thankfully, the purgill we saw in The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 1 didn’t get in the way of Mando’s ship. But we have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of them.
Why purrgil in The Mandalorian is a huge deal
The creatures were mentioned several times in various Star Wars media, but they were officially introduced in Star Wars: Rebels. In that story, a band of heroes led by the Jedi-in-training Ezra Bridger deploy the purrgil in a ploy against the evil Admiral Thrawn. They use the space whales to zap Thrawn to an unknown location across the galaxy. Unfortunately, Ezra winds up going with him.
Rebels ends with Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano teaming up to find and rescue Ezra. That was in 2018. Five years later, we still don’t know what happened to him, but wherever he did wind up, there’s a good chance the purrgil know.
The upcoming Star Wars show Ahsoka is expected to finally give us some answers (rumor has it Ezra has already been cast in live-action). But with this small Easter egg, The Mandalorian Season 3 just brought us one step closer to solving the mystery of Ezra’s location. And if one thing is sure, we haven’t seen the last of the purrgil either.
