diff --git a/Python/pythonrun.c b/Python/pythonrun.c
index 012c1b8..026fcfa 100644
--- a/Python/pythonrun.c
+++ b/Python/pythonrun.c
@@ -725,7 +725,7 @@
 redecode_filename(PyObject *file, const char *new_encoding,
                   const char *errors)
 {
-    PyObject *file_bytes = NULL, *new_file = NULL;
+    PyObject *file_bytes, *new_file;
 
     file_bytes = PyUnicode_EncodeFSDefault(file);
     if (file_bytes == NULL)