Gungi: Everything You Need To Know About Star Wars' Wookiee Jedi

When people think about the Wookiees of "Star Wars," Chewbacca is the first to come to mind. He is Han Solo's companion, incredibly skilled with a bowcaster, and even though he wasn't given the Medal of Yavin for helping with the destruction of the Death Star, he deserved one. However, Chewbacca isn't the only Wookiee in the "Star Wars" universe. In fact, there are some Wookiees that have a skill Chewbacca doesn't.

Gungi is a Wookiee introduced in the animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," and he's special because he's also Force-sensitive and training to be a Jedi. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas wasn't always on board with Wookiee Jedi, though several have made their way into canon over the decades. While Gungi hasn't made the leap from animated to live-action (yet), what we do know about the Wookiee shows he is a fighter, from how he obtains his kyber crystal to surviving Order 66.

When Gungi first appears in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," he is training to be a Jedi. He's one of the top young trainees in his class, and because of his skill, he gets to go to the snowy planet Ilum to find a kyber crystal with Yoda and Ahsoka Tano. This is part of a ceremony called the Gathering, in which the trainee finds the crystal that speaks to them within a cave while practicing an important Jedi skill. Gungi's patience is tested in this case, since his green kyber crystal is stuck on a piece of land surrounded by ice cold water. The young Wookiee has to wait for the water to freeze so he can walk across the ice and gather his crystal.

However, the success and excitement of their trip to Ilum is cut short when well-known galactic pirate Hondo Ohnaka boards the ship with the intent to steal and sell the kyber crystals. While the Jedi and Jedi-in-training successfully fight him off, their ship is damaged and Ahsoka ends up stuck in space. The group does eventually rescue her from planet Florrum; in their downtime on the ship, Gungi and his fellow trainees build their lightsabers with their new crystals.

Despite saving Ahsoka, their ship is destroyed when they try to get away from Florrum, and they're taken captive by Hondo Ohnaka. While the pirate clearly aims to keep them, General Grievous attacks, giving the young Padawans a chance to escape by joining forces with the pirate in a common goal: surviving Grievous.

The Great Jedi Purge, starting with the enactment of Order 66, is the mass genocide of Jedi orchestrated by Darth Sidious during his reign over the Galactic Empire. Over the span of 16 years after the Clone Wars, the Sith methodically exterminated Jedi and anything connected to the Jedi Order. The intent was to effectively kill off all Jedi, trying to prevent them from having the population numbers to rise up against the Sith. Order 66 was how the Sith justified their actions; the order would deem Jedi traitors, with death as their punishment.

Gungi was a young Jedi at the time of the Great Purge, but he managed to survive. It isn't clear exactly how he escaped the Sith other than that he hid for a long time, though where isn't known. At one point, he is captured by the criminal cartel known as the Vanguard Axis, who meant to sell him to the highest bidder because he's a Wookiee. Omega, a female clone of Jango Fett, breaks him out and helps him escape aboard the Clone Force 99 ship in "Star Wars: The Bad Batch."

After Omega and Clone Force 99 help Gungi get away from the Vanguard Axis, they take him back to Kashyyyk, his forested home planet. However, Imperial Forces currently control it, which means they not only have to be sneaky about landing on the planet, but they have to avoid patrols that could recapture the wanted Jedi fugitive. As they head to his village, Gungi shows his skills outside of fighting with a lightsaber, using the Force to communicate with some native arachnids known as netcasters, convincing the creatures that he and the group mean them no harm. 

Though they find Gungi's home in ruins, destroyed by a fire, he meets another Wookiee. He's then guided to a different village, led by the Wookiee elder Yanna. Gungi settles with them, helping the village fight against the reptilian Trandoshans trying to exploit the land for natural resources under Imperial rule. The Wookiees set a trap for the bounty hunters, who are en route because they know there's a Jedi sniffing around; the Trandoshans are defeated with the help of the netcasters from before. This battle helps Gungi realize he wants to stay in the village, aiding in the effort to protect Kashyyyk from the Imperial Forces, and giving the Wookiee a home after going into hiding during the Great Purge.