The Mandalorian Season 3 Premiere Brings A Unique Star Wars Rebels Creature Into Live-Action
Spoilers for "Star Wars: The Mandalorian" Chapter 17 – The Apostate follow.
On the third season premiere of "The Mandalorian," there was a striking moment in hyperspace. As Grogu looks out at the streaking tunnel of lightspeed, he sees a figure fading in and out of the blue. The silhouette becomes more prominent and he realizes it's a creature out there.
The camera pulls back to reveal many of these creatures, surrounding the Mandalorian's modified N1 starfighter. Grogu can hardly believe it and crawls out of his pod to join a sleeping Din Djarin for comfort after witnessing such a spectacle.
These shadows we see are purrgils —mythical creatures that can travel through hyperspace all on their own, causing a hazard for spacers flying through their migration patterns. They're beautiful sights, doubly so in their first live-action appearance, and they have a very important role in the "Star Wars" mythos and it's likely only going to get larger.
Star Wars Rebels
Purrgils first appeared in "Star Wars Rebels." Hera Syndulla, the captain of The Ghost, explained to Ezra Bridger that most spacers found them to be pests because they cause crashes in hyperspace. Ezra, though, found himself connecting to the creatures through the Force.
In the finale of "Star Wars Rebels", when Grand Admiral Thrawn had the entirety of Phoenix Squadron backed into a corner on Lothal and demanded their surrender, Ezra sacrificed himself to go aboard Thrawn's ship, The Chimaera. That's when he brought the purrgils to the fight. They appeared from hyperspace at his call, surrounding Thrawn's Star Destroyer and the others in his fleet, holding them all in their grip, and jettisoning into parts unknown, taking Ezra and Thrawn with them.
It effectively ends the conflict on Lothal, liberating it for the Rebel Alliance. To this point in the timeline, Ezra doesn't get to see his home planet liberated, though, because he's off in parts unknown with Thrawn. Did they survive the flight of the purrgils? Ahsoka Tano sure seems to think so.
Ahsoka...?
The appearance of the purrgils is a reminder that we have Ahsoka Tano coming soon with her own show. At the end of "Star Wars Rebels", she accompanies Sabine Wren to find Ezra and Thrawn in the unknown spaces, hoping to bring them back to the civilized galaxy. Seeing the purrgils here in "The Mandalorian" almost feels like a tease for that upcoming show.
Whether we see the purrgils again in the future of the show or on "Ahsoka" or not, it was a beautiful sight to behold in live-action and makes one want to go back and revisit their appearances in "Star Wars Rebels." To do that, you can rewatch their first appearance in an episode called "The Call" or check out the season finale, "Family Reunion — and Farewell."
The third season of "Star Wars: The Mandalorian" starts streaming on March 1, 2023, only on Disney+, new episodes come out every Wednesday.