Game of Thrones season 8, episode 2: Fans learn what happened to Jon Snow's direwolf Ghost

There were plenty of reunions in episode two of Game of Thrones season 8, but the return of one familiar face in particular had fans breathing a sigh of relief.

Many had been wondering what happened to Jon Snow's direwolf, Ghost, who didn't appear in season 7 and was barely seen in season 6, although he made a brief appearance when Jon came back to life.

When he didn't show up in the first episode of season 8, fans began to worry. However, they should have been reassured by a Huffington Post interview with visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer, who promised: "Ghost does show up and... he's very present and does some pretty cool things in season 8."

It was something of an anti-climax, but Ghost does finally appear in episode 2, where he is spotted standing patiently by Jon's side during a conversation with Samwell Tarly and Dolorous Edd on the walls of Winterfell.

Bauer previously explained the absence of the direwolves as to do with the difficulty of bringing them to life on screen. The process involves filming real wolves and scaling them up, but they can “only behave in certain ways.”

“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,” Bauer said at the time.“He [Ghost] has a fair amount of screen time in Season 8,” Bauer told us.

With the White Walkers arrived for battle, Ghost is likely to get some more action in the third episode.

The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.