Purrgil Have Arrived in ‘Ahsoka,’ and They Could Change 'Star Wars' Forever

The scene-stealing “space whales” featured in the Disney+ Ahsoka show are far from a new addition to the galaxy far, far away. But after making their official debut in Episode 3, some audiences might be unaware of just how crucial they are to the franchise’s future, specifically, for their unique ability to travel to, well, a galaxy far, far away—literally.

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It’s hard to believe that Season 1 of Dave Filoni’s eagerly-awaited Ahsoka show is nearly halfway over. While we’ve still got a ways to go until it wraps up its eight-episode run on Disney+ next month, Filoni certainly isn’t shying away from throwing audiences head-first into the action, and there’s still plenty of surprises left in store.

Starring Rosario Dawson as the titular ex-Jedi, Ahsoka picks up roughly around the same time as The Mandalorian and sees her enlisting the help of Star Wars Rebels’ Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) for a dangerous new mission: tracking down former Imperial warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).

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As fans of Rebels know, Thrawn served as the show’s primary antagonist, hunting the Rebel crew of the starship Ghost as they traversed across the galaxy, wreaking havoc on the Galactic Empire.

Thrawn was ultimately defeated by Ezra Bridger (played by Eman Esfandi in live-action) in the series finale after the young Jedi whisked both Thrawn and himself into deep space, wrapped in the tentacles of mysterious Purrgil. Ezra was assumed dead after his noble sacrifice, and Thrawn with him. But Ahsoka has made it clear that Thrawn’s not gone yet—as a matter of fact, he’s more powerful than ever.

Ahsoka sees the eponymous hero requesting assistance from the freshly-formed New Republic in Episode 3, titled “Part Three: Time to Fly.” But despite her and Hera’s heroic efforts, the government doesn’t see Thrawn as enough of an organized threat to further investigate him and his band of ever-loyal Imperial sympathizers.

Because of this, Ahsoka and Sabine are on their own when they travel to the orbit of the planet Seatos to find escaped prisoner Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), a longtime ally of Thrawn whose mysterious hyperspace ring could be a direct pathway to the Chiss Admiral—and Ezra.

Elsbeth’s hyperspace ring, as explained by Ahsoka’s trusty Mark IV architect droid, Huyang (David Tennant), could be powerful enough to send a ship into a far-off galaxy like the Unknown Regions, where Ezra and Thrawn are believed to be trapped.

After nearly losing their lives to get a scan of the craft, Sabine, Ahsoka, and Huyang engage in a dogfight with Elsbeth’s henchman, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) and Inquisitor Marrok (Paul Darnell), encountering a pack of migrating Purrgil along the way. Here, the show gives audiences their first close-up look at the epic beasts in live-action and sets up a central plot point that will take Star Wars where no Jedi has gone before.

Sure, fans got a glimpse of the Purrgil in Season 3 of The Mandalorian and already know what they look like from Rebels. But Ahsoka not only highlights their staggering size and abilities, but also majorly hints that their hyperspace-traveling migration paths could also be the key to Thrawn.

As Huyang explains, “The Jedi archives speak of intergalactic hyperspace lanes between galaxies which used to follow the migration paths of star whales named Purrgil,” proving that Sabine and Ahsoka are on the right track to find Ezra. Meanwhile, Morgan Elsbeth is using Purrgil “knowledge” to find a way to locate Thrawn, as they alone contain the keys to jumping between galaxies.

Purrgil are already rewriting Star Wars’ hyperspace canon, and it’ll be interesting to see how they further factor into Ahsoka as the hunt for Thrawn and Ezra continues. There’s plenty of Star Wars Legends lore about the Unknown Regions and the Galactic Barrier, and with those ideas now making their way into canon, it’s safe to say that these strange, faster-than-light traveling beasts could change the franchise forever, taking our heroes to a brand new galaxy that’s like nothing we’ve seen before.

New episodes of Ahsoka premiere on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. PST, only on Disney+.

Were you happy to see Purrgil make their much-awaited return in Ahsoka Episode 3?