Where Was Jon Snow's Direwolf Ghost During The Battle Of The Bastards?

So many direwolves have died in Game of Thrones that I genuinely have no idea whose is still alive and whose is dead. It's time for me to recap.

Oh, usual shit with spoilers by the way...

Anyway, as you should remember, each of the Stark kids got given a direwolf when they found a litter by a dead mother wolf in the very first episode.

Since then the direwolves have slowly but surely been killed off.

Sansa's wolf, Lady, was beheaded by Ned Stark on the way to King's Landing. Robb's direwolf, Grey Wind, was shot by an arrow while caged at The Red Wedding. Rickon's wolf, Shaggydog, was killed by the Umbers when he was captured and presented to Ramsay Bolton.

And of course who can forget Bran's direwolf Summer, killed by white walkers in the most pointless defence of his master we've ever seen. Also, RIP Hodor - forever a legend.

So that leaves Arya's wolf Nymeria and Jon's Ghost left alive in the Seven Kingdoms. We haven't seen Nymeria since about season 1 and it is believed she is currently roaming around the north awaiting Arya's return, which, as we now know, is impending.

And Ghost? Well, Ghost has made sporadic appearances alongside Jon since his return from the dead.

Given how much he loves ripping people's throats out, you'd imagine he'd have been right at home in the Battle of the Bastards, but fans have been wondering, where the fuck was he?

Let's just get it straight from the start, Ghost is not dead. He's perfectly fine but producers basically couldn't afford to have him in the battle.

Ghost isn't played by a live animal and is a CGI character, which means he's expensive to include in scenes and takes a lot of time and production work to include.

Miguel Sapochnik, the man who directed the Battle of the Bastards, told Business Insider: "[Ghost] was in there in spades originally, but it's an incredibly time consuming and expensive character to bring to life.

"Ultimately we had to choose between Wun-Wun and the direwolf, so the dog bit the dust."

Do you reckon that's why they killed Wun-Wun? To save money? Because if that's the case, that's even more treacherous than anything that's happened in Game of Thrones so far. Unreal.

Battle of the Bastards already cost a shitload to produce according to Entertainment Weekly, and that's before you include the CGI budget. Apparently the battle scene itself took 25 days to film and needed 600 crew members, 500 extras, 70 horses and 25 stunt people.

Overall, the cost was estimated between $11 million and $25 million.

Now they don't have to make Wun-Wun any more, you'd imagine we'll be seeing a fair bit more of Ghost in the coming seasons.

And who knows, maybe even Nymeria might make a triumphant return. To be honest it'll just be nice to see some Starks catching a break.

Words by George Pavlou

Images via HBO

Topics: Ghost, Jon Snow, Game of Thrones

George Pavlou

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