The Mandalorian S3 Premiere: Fans Love IG-11's Terminator-Like Jump Scare

This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of "The Mandalorian"

The long-awaited Season 3 premiere of "The Mandalorian" finally reunited fans with Pedro Pascal's titular bounty hunter and his tiny green pal Grogu, though the installment also took the time to bring back a few unexpected faces from the show's past. Most notably, viewers witnessed the return of IG-11, the droid enemy-turned-ally of Mando from Season 1, who just so happens to be voiced by Taika Waititi. The ending of "The Mandalorian" Chapter 8 saw IG-11 sacrificing himself to save Grogu from his would-be captors, and his absence from subsequent installments has left a droid-shaped hole in the series — that is, until now.

Indeed, IG-11 returns from the dead in the first episode of "The Mandalorian" Season 3, though it's not as joyous of an occasion as one might hope. In fact, the formerly-deceased droid actually ends up being responsible for one of the episode's scariest sequences, and the shocking tone of the character's return proved to be a hit with fans of the series.

In "The Mandalorian's" Season 3 premiere, it's quickly revealed that the Mando is currently searching for a way to fully bring IG-11 back to life, memories and all. Unfortunately, his first attempt on this front doesn't go too well. In a shocking jump scare sequence, the top half of the dead droid's mangled body suddenly reanimates and defaults to his original programming. As IG-11 violently crawls towards Mando and Grogu, he simply repeats: "Terminate."

While fans may have been saddened to see IG-11 in such a poor state, the sequence was well-received by viewers, some of whom noticed the parallels with Arnold Schwarzeneggar's titular robotic bounty hunter from the "Terminator" movies. "I got major Terminator vibes when he went into rampage mode and started crawling around looking for a target to destroy," u/MarthsBars commented after the episode. The animation that went into making IG-11's rigid movements also helped sell the scare for some. "That was an awesome visual," u/Spaceace91478 wrote. "Very creepy looking and intense."

Of course, "The Mandalorian" has never been shy about showing its cinematic influences, referencing everything from "Tombstone" to "Aliens" throughout its run. Nonetheless, fans were happy to see the series ostensibly drawing from yet another one of the biggest sci-fi franchises out there.