Eagle-eyed Game Of Thrones fans, or perhaps just followers of HBO’s fantasy mega-hit that also love cats, will have noticed that we haven’t seen Ser Pounce for a while. And now we know why: Tommen’s cat was killed in shocking circumstances.

Of course, shock deaths are par for the course when it comes to Game Of Thrones. Who could forget Sean Bean’s Ned Stark and his very surprising and very sudden departure from the show in season 1? That one set the tone for the show, really, paving the way for things like The Red Wedding and The Purple Wedding and all the other deaths in the show’s subsequent seasons.

But one death we didn’t get to see was the demise of Ser Pounce. The feline companion of King Tommen (RIP) hasn’t been seen since his owner’s shocking death.

Co-showrunner David Benioff said this to Entertainment Weekly on the topic:

“Cersei hated the name ‘Ser Pounce’ so much she could not allow him to survive. So she came up with her most diabolical [execution]. Ser Pounce’s death was so horrible we couldn’t even put it on the air.”

And Dan Weiss, the other co-showrunner, added this:

“If you buy the super-extended, super-charged Game of Thrones box set that comes out, the death of Ser Pounce will be in there. Just one whole episode devoted to the death of Ser Pounce.”

There is a jokey tone going on here, for sure, but this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to an official answer about what happened to Ser Pounce.

Game Of Thrones returns on April 14th 2019.