Earlier this week, scientists at Colossal Biosciences announced that they had revived the dire wolf, a species of giant wolf that went extinct over 10,000 years ago. There's some dispute over whether they actually brought back dire wolves or just edited the genes of modern-day grey wolves to make them resemble ancient dire wolves, thus creating something new. But they're giant wolves that will look like Jon Snow's direwolf Ghost from Game of Thrones when they're fully grown. It's as close to real-life dire wolves as we're ever likely to get.
Colossal is fully aware of the Game of Thrones connection; they brought A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin on board to help spread the news, and even photographed two of the baby dire wolves — twin brothers Romulus and Remus — dozing on the Iron Throne. (They also have a little sister named Khaleesi.) As cool as the science behind this project is, I think the marketing might be the more impressive aspect. Colossal CEO Ben Lamm and his team thought this through.
Case in point: Colossal made sure to ask Game of Thrones stars about this, including Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow. “This is truly mesmerizing," Harington is quoted as saying on the Colossal website. "To see with my own eyes this beautiful animal that for years I could only imagine…. Is real and is back on earth and exists is a stunning thing. That a direwolf, a ‘Ghost’, has been brought back to life is very emotional. Having spoken at length to Ben and the team at Colossal and heard their vision for what the company can and wants to do, I personally feel encouraged that this is science that can help prevent and undo some of the ills we have inflicted on the natural world as a species whilst bringing us back some of the great wonder and joy we have been stripping ourselves of.”
I do have to point out that Kit Harington's name is spelled wrong on the Colossal website: they spell it "Harrington," with two 'R's. Sometimes cloning is easier than spelling.
Kit Harington and Sophie Turner weigh in on the return of dire wolves
In Game of Thrones, each of the Stark kids gets a direwolf, including Jon Snow, even though he's a bastard. Jon's direwolf Ghost lives through the whole story. The same can't be said for Lady, the adopted direwolf of Sansa Stark. Offscreen, that story has a happier ending: actress Sophie Turner adopted the dog who played Lady, Zunni, as her own pet:
Sansa's dire wolf, Lady, was played by Zunni from Mahlek Northern Inuit Dogs. After Zunni was no longer needed for the show, Sophie Turner adopted Zunni as her own pet pic.twitter.com/77ccvqtnTN
— Thrones Facts | HOTD 🐉 (@Thrones_Facts) October 30, 2019
Turner also weighed in on Colossal's achievement: “For 15 years, dire wolves have been a huge part of my life, but only in stories and on screen–until now," she said, according to ComicBook.com. "Thanks to Colossal, we are getting to experience a monumental moment, not just for the return of the iconic dire wolf, but for science, for conservation, and for everyone who’s ever dreamed of the impossible.”
As an aside, if you're wondering why I sometimes spell it "dire wolf" and at other times "direwolf," it's because the name of the actual animal is "dire wolf," but in A Song of Ice and Fire the beasts are known as "direwolves." So in our world they're dire wolves but in Westeros they're direwolves. That's s'more fun spelling trivia for you.
Colossal intends to try reviving other extinct species like the dodo bird and the woolly mammoth, as well as help preserve endangered species like the red wolf. For now, the three new dire wolves live on a 2,000-acre ecological preserve in an undisclosed location. We don't want people trying to poach dire wolves, now do we?
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