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Game of Thrones: Jon Snow’s Direwolf Is Returning For Final Season
Jon Snow's animal companion, a direwolf named Ghost, will appear in the final season of Game of Thrones. The now significantly large Ghost, who is depicted with the help of CGI, did not appear in any of the season 7 episodes, only getting a brief mention.
Ghost has a special connection with Jon Snow - audiences were introduced to him and five other direwolf pups in the very first episode of the series. All abandoned, these direwolves were adopted by the Stark children. With Ghost's status as a uniquely albino direwolf, apparent bastard Stark son Jon took on the fellow outcast. As the series progressed, nearly all of these direwolves died, with only Arya Stark's Nymeria and Ghost still alive. While Nymeria is once again back in the wild, Ghost remains in Winterfell, where Jon serves as King in the North.
Although Ghost failed to make an appearance during the several Winterfell scenes in season 7, Game of Thrones VFX supervisor Joe Bauer confirmed to Huffington Post that Jon Snow's direwolf will indeed show up in the eighth and final season. Not only will Ghost be in season 8, but he will also have "a fair amount of screen time," according to Bauer. Bauer further speculated that the under-use of direwolves in season 7 was due to the difficulty of filming real wolves for the visual effects work, saying:
"The direwolves are tough because you don’t want to get them wrong, so we end up always shooting real wolves and doing a scaling trick with them, but the real wolves only behave in certain ways."
It is a tendency of popular event television shows to want to bring everything full circle during a final season. With Game of Thrones as popular as it is, it is certainly the case here as well. With Ghost being the only Stark direwolf accounted for, and having appeared in the very first episode of the landmark show, it is evident that he will be along for the ride during the end of Jon Snow's long journey.
The character arc of Jon Snow has taken several turns - initially thought to be the bastard son of Ned Stark, therefore forced to fight an uphill battle for his own recognition and accomplishments, it was discovered in season 7 that Jon is actually Aegon Targaryen, the legitimate son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, and the true heir to the Iron Throne. As Jon Snow's real destiny is possibly approaching in the final hours of Game of Thrones, perhaps followers of the show will find that his loyal partner Ghost, too, is destined for more.
