Star Wars Rebels fans had a big reason to cheer during the third-season premiere of The Mandalorian today on Disney+, but other viewers might have been left scratching their heads as to what exactly it was that young Grogu saw in the blue swirls of hyperspace during his travels with Din Djarin.
These whale-like space creatures (seen only in silhouette in The Mandalorian) are called Purrgil, and they are indeed capable of hyperspace travel through natural means.
Purrgil first appeared in the second-season Star Wars Rebels episode “The Call” and then popped up in several more episodes of the popular animated series from Lucasfilm, which aired on Disney XD and the Disney Channel from 2014 through 2018. Rebels was co-created by Dave Filoni, who also serves as an executive producer on The Mandalorian, so it makes perfect sense that we would get this connection between the two series.
Another reason the creative talent behind The Mandalorian may be reminding us of the Purrgil’s existence is that they played a major roles in the series finale of Rebels, which saw the characters of Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn whisked away to an unknown part of the galaxy by the semi-sentient starship-sized creatures. Ezra and Thrawn are heavily rumored to be key factors in the plot of Dave Filoni’s upcoming live-action Star Wars: Ahsoka series, which looks to be following up on both the events of Star Wars Rebels and former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano’s appearances in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Confused? I’d recommend reading more about Purrgil and their role in the Star Wars galaxy over at Wookieepedia.
New episodes of The Mandalorian are released Wednesdays exclusively via Disney+, and the complete series of Star Wars Rebels is available to stream there right now.