Direwolves are really, really hard to shoot, which is why they are rarely on Game of Thrones

Vulture

The HBO drama took some heat last week when Jon Snow didn't pet his direwolf Ghost goodbye. But there was a technical reason why that scene didn't happen. "Direwolves are bloodthirsty, oversize creatures that for the most part hang around our heroes looking graceful and calm, which means that integrating them into scenes convincingly is one of the toughest demands on VFX teams already accustomed to working at the top of their game," says Calum Marsh. "The problem isn’t that the direwolves are a state-of-the-art effect whose complicated creation strains the limitations of budget or technology. In fact it’s the opposite: Unlike most of the supernatural wonders that grace the screen spectacularly episode after episode, the direwolves are strictly, even stubbornly old-fashioned, created in a painstaking, but always visually impressive, way."