Some pretty huge casting news broke last night regarding HBO’s highly anticipated TV series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us. First, we learned that Game of Thrones alum Bella Ramsey had been cast in the role of Ellie, and then soon after we learned that The Mandalorian himself, Pedro Pascal, has signed on to play the lead character of Joel. The story follows a smuggler (Joel) tasked with escorting a teenage girl (Ellie) across a post-apocalyptic landscape, and the games drew critical raves for their emotion-driven storytelling and devastating plot turns. Add in the fact that Craig Mazin, the writer/creator of HBO’s brilliant and acclaimed limited series Chernobyl, is showrunning The Last of Us TV series, and you have yourself all the ingredients for a major TV event.

But news of Pascal’s casting was immediately followed by one big question: what does this mean for The Mandalorian? The actor is, of course, the lead character on Disney+’s wildly popular Star Wars TV series, and a third season is due to begin production this year. But Deadline’s report on Pascal’s casting had some intriguing information about his current relationship with The Mandalorian, which could mean a limited presence for Pascal on the show going forward.

Indeed, the report states that Pascal “recently became available for a new series” and was attracting offers from a number of high-profile networks and streamers. He chose The Last of Us and HBO, with Deadline adding that this new series has him “in first position” even though he will continue to be part of The Mandalorian.

In TV-speak, “first position” means that show takes precedence over any other shows an actor may be a part of. So if there is a scheduling conflict, the show that’s in “first position” wins out. In the past, this has led to some actors having to drop out of other TV shows or greatly reduce their screentime, as the series that’s in “first position” has that actor for whatever time they deem necessary, and it’s up to that series and its creatives to decide when or if to make changes.

A good example is Parks and Recreation and Chris Pratt. As the show was nearing the end of its fifth season, Pratt earned the starring role in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. But production on the Marvel movie was going to conflict with the shooting schedule for a potential Season 6 (at this time the show had not yet been officially renewed). So showrunner Mike Schur technically could have decided not to allow Pratt to take the movie role and held him to his first position contract on Parks and Rec, but instead he opted to let Pratt take advantage of this massive opportunity and work around the actor’s schedule for Season 6. The result is that the Season 6 premiere of the series was shot in London, where Guardians of the Galaxy was filming, and Pratt sat out the next few Parks and Rec episodes as he continued filming the Marvel movie.

So what does this mean for The Mandalorian? Well, showrunner Jon Favreau previously revealed that The Mandalorian Season 3 wouldn’t begin filming until early 2021, after they wrap the spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett. It’s unclear exactly when The Last of Us is expected to start production, but it’s likely to be this year and it’s possible that Pascal takes a more limited physical role in the production of The Mandalorian going forward.

We already know through reporting that Pascal actually wasn’t on set all that much during Season 1 of the series, and instead performed much of the role through voice acting in post-production while stunt performers and stand-ins filled the physical role of The Mandalorian on set. Pascal was reportedly on set more during Season 2, especially during those final two episodes when Din Djarin took his helmet off for maximum emotional effect, but even then much of the physical work doesn’t necessarily require Pascal to be there. And frankly, a stunt performer was going to do most of the stunts anyway, and given that The Mandalorian is an action-heavy show, that’s a lot of scenes for Pascal to be sitting on the sidelines.

There’s been no confirmation of any kind that Pascal will have a more limited presence on The Mandalorian going forward, but as The Last of Us becomes his TV priority commitment-wise, it would not be surprising to learn that he’s only on set for a few key scenes of the Disney+ series and performs most of his work in a voice recording booth. That would allow him to take the time to fully immerse himself into the role of Joel for The Last of Us, and wouldn’t even really detract all that much from The Mandalorian (given that he and the crew have kind of been operating this way already).

As was reported all the way back in Season 1, the titular role of The Mandalorian has always been a collaboration of sorts between Pascal and his stunt performers, and it’s likely that trend will continue and may even sway more heavily towards the stunt performers in future seasons. There’s no expectation that Pascal will leave the show fully, and he’ll no doubt continue to deliver outstanding voice work in Season 3, but it’s also hard to fault Pascal for wanting to spring for a role like Joel in The Last of Us – one in which he’s not obscured by a helmet or deferring to stunt performers for the majority of an episode’s runtime.