Who needs the Infinity stones when you have rings of power, right?

Amazon’s ambitious Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power, has enjoyed quite a contest when it came to determining its director.

Even though the project ended up being led by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that they had to outrun “dozens” of prominent fellow creators. Among them were the Russo brothers — the directors behind Marvel’s Infinity Saga.

According to the report, the brothers had their own vision for the Lord of the Rings show. Citing an insider, The Hollywood Reporter said that the Russos pitched the Third Age “as an Aragorn story” — whatever that could possibly mean.

Among other contenders was an Oscar nominee, Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything), who reportedly had a Shakespearean take on the Lord of the Rings story.

However, despite the tough competition, the Amazon executives ended up with McKay and Payne — the ones with the least experience but with expansive knowledge of the Tolkien-created world.

“Hearing them bounce back and forth, they had such a deep connection to the material that was there from the beginning,” Amazon Studios chief Jen Salke said of the two showrunners. “There was no education you could do for that; it was their natural organic interest.”

Their pitch, according to Payne, envisaged the show to be “Braveheart, not Narnia — you want it real and lived in.”

The Rings of Power has been muscling through massive criticism ever since it hit small screens, but many people have also praised it as “the most Tolkien-accurate” Lord of the Rings media ever. The opinions remain divided even now, when The Rings of Power season 1 is approaching its finale.