Jon Snow’s loyal direwolf Ghost is officially returning in Game of Thrones season eight. After a conspicuously long absence from HBO’s flagship drama, Ghost is set to make a triumphant return in Thrones‘ final six episodes, according to visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer.

“Oh, you’ll see him again. He has a fair amount of screen time in season eight,” Bauer told The Huffington Post. “He’s very present and does some pretty cool things in season eight.”

Ghost didn’t have a single scene in season seven, leaving fans wondering what the direwolf was up to while his master was off battling white walkers and falling in love with dragon queens. However, his time off from the show apparently had more to do with technical issues than anything else.

“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 explained.

Here’s hoping for a Jon-Ghost reunion in season 8.

HBO

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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.