A Beloved 'Game of Thrones' Character Is Returning in Final Season

Game of Thrones' massive roster of compelling characters can make it difficult to keep track of everyone's whereabouts. After missing for Season Seven of the series, Jon Snow's direwolf companion Ghost will return for the final season.

"Oh, you'll see him again. He has a fair amount of screen time in Season Eight," VFX supervisor Joe Bauer shared with The Huffington Post. "He does show up."

In the series, House Stark of Winterfell is represented by the direwolf, a creature that had seemingly left the territory. In the first episode, a group of direwolf pups is found in the Winterfell woods, resulting in each Stark child receiving a companion. The final discovered pup was the all-white Ghost, who was given to Jon as he was only a half-sibling to the rest of the kids and Ghost was the runt of the litter.

Despite the wolf being the smallest of the pack, the animal has regularly proven his strength and his devotion to Jon, springing into action in order to help his master. Throughout the course of the series, various direwolves have escaped while others have been killed, with Ghost's absence from Season Seven making fans curious about his fate.

Bauer hinted that one reason Ghost might not have appeared in recent episodes is the limited nature of what the actual animals on set are capable of.

"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," Bauer noted.

The show's narrative has subjected the Stark children to a number of traumatic events, with the direwolves also suffering some fatal encounters. When it comes to the George R.R. Martin books upon which the series is based, the novels have gone easier on the animals, with four of the companions still alive in the most recent story while the HBO series only has two remaining animals.

"I think that has something to do with why the direwolves are in the show but they're not maybe as integral as they are in the books," the VFX supervisor pointed out.

The other surviving wolf in the show is Nymeria, who belongs to Arya Stark. Bauer might have been coy about Nymeria's fate in the final season, but confirmed Ghost's appearance.

Bauer admitted, "Ghost does show up, and he does some ... he's very present and does some pretty cool things in Season Eight."

The final season of Game of Thrones will debut sometime in 2019.

Are you excited that Ghost will return to the series? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T The Huffington Post]