This Game of Thrones character is officially returning for the final season

Waiting for Game of Thrones Season 8 is literally a dream of spring. The series won’t return until Spring 2019, and so far, information about what to expect from the show’s final season has been pretty sparse. But now, we know one encouraging detail about the upcoming season. One of Jon Snow’s companions is returning to the screen for the end of Game of Thrones.

If you watched Season 7 of the HBO fantasy series, you might have wondered, Where is Ghost? The loyal white direwolf was nowhere to be seen the entire season. Despite the fact that he was by Jon’s side almost constantly in the past, his name was only mentioned once. By Sansa. (So much for man’s best friend.)

But luckily, it seems that Jon will soon reunite with his furry companion. Jon Bauer, visual effects supervisor for the HBO series, told HuffPost that the direwolf will have “a fair amount of screen time” in Season 8. And he revealed that Ghost’s disappearance last season was simply a matter of how difficult it is to bring him to life.

"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 told HuffPost.

We’re just glad that Ghost is coming back.

Bauer did say that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss might have their own reasons for Ghost’s absence last season. But from an effects standpoint, we can imagine how difficult it is to work with wolves.

Since Ghost will reappear in the series’ final season, we’re wondering if other direwolves will, too. Arya’s former pet, Nymeria, showed up in a bittersweet Season 7 scene. And while she didn’t seem to remember Arya, it’s possible that she’ll make another appearance in Season 8.

We’ll be anxiously waiting to see more of Ghost in the final season of Game of Thrones.