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Real-Life Ghost Dies But Not The ‘Game of Thrones’ Star

By Nics Abasta
Published on: 21:20 PST, May 23, 2017

George R.R. Martin shocked the Game of Thrones fans when he announced that the real-life Ghost passed away this week. Many took it as the four-legged star who played as Jon Snow’s direwolf in the TV series.

Not the GoT four-legged star

The Ghost that Martin was talking about was a wolf-dog from the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, which he named after the Game of Thrones character. Ghost is part of the pack of wolf-dogs rescued from Iowa in 2012. The wolf-dogs are called the Westeros Pack, which George and his wife, Parris, named after GoT characters, as reported by NY Daily News.

George R.R. Martin paid tribute to the companion in a Twitter post, saying, “In loving memory of the real life Ghost from the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. He passed this week & he will be missed. R.I.P.”

The one who played as Ghost in The Game of Thrones is Quigley, a 10-year-old Arctic wolf owned by Andrew Simpson’s Instinct Ranch. The company trains animal actors.

Don’t kill Ghost in the story

Game of Thrones fans are hoping that George would not get the idea of killing Ghost in the story, though. Only Ghost remains in the series while Nymeria, Arya Stark’s direwolf, is still missing. The rest of the pack had been killed already. Robb’s direwolf, Grey Wind, was killed at the Red Wedding, Ned Stark mercifully killed Sansa’s Lady, Rickon’s Shaggydog was murdered by the Umbers, and Bran’s Summer died protecting him.

https://twitter.com/_angiegonzalezm/status/867064043478982656

An Instagram post from Instinct suggests that Arya Stark might reunite with Nymeria in Game of Thrones Season 7. The company posted a photo of Quigley, who plays as Ghost, and then another photo of a black wolf-dog, which fans assume as the one who will portray Nymeria. Maise Williams was also spotted in Canada awhile back. It is where the direwolf scenes were filmed, as reported y Zimbio. Nymeria has been missing since Season 1, but in the books, there were mentions about a female direwolf leading a pack.

Recently released photos from Game of Thrones Season 7 revealed that Arya is heading north to where her brother Jon Snow is or to their home in Winterfell. She’s riding a horse in broad daylight, dressed in clothes appropriate for colder weather.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres on July 16. Season 8 and the series finale is scheduled next year.

Meanwhile, HBO is planning a couple of Game of Thrones spin-off series. There are now five ideas under development, four of which will be written by Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Brian Helgeland, and Carly Wray while the fifth author was not named yet. George R.R. Martin is working with all of them. They have visited him in Santa Fe to talk about their ideas, the history of Westeros, and the world beyond.

Martin clarified in a blog post that the shows will be prequels, which he calls as successor show, and some of the settings will not be in Westeros at all. It might involve the world beyond Westeros that George created in A Song of Ice and Fire.

With George busy on these new projects, The Winds of Winter is facing another setback. Martin said that he is still working on the book. Earlier this year, he said he had made progress on writing the book and thought it could be released this year. Many have anticipated that The Winds of Winter would hit the shelves before The Game of Thrones Season 7 hit the screens, but unfortunately, it’s not happening yet. In addition to the GoT successor shows and The Winds of Winter, Martin is also busy with other projects including a companion book for the GoT, Fire and Blood, and new Wild Cards books.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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