diff --git a/Objects/bytes_methods.c b/Objects/bytes_methods.c
index 6b8166385d375b..ef9e65e566ece9 100644
--- a/Objects/bytes_methods.c
+++ b/Objects/bytes_methods.c
@@ -774,7 +774,7 @@ _Py_bytes_tailmatch(const char *str, Py_ssize_t len,
 {
     Py_ssize_t start = 0;
     Py_ssize_t end = PY_SSIZE_T_MAX;
-    PyObject *subobj;
+    PyObject *subobj = NULL;
     int result;
 
     if (!stringlib_parse_args_finds(function_name, args, &subobj, &start, &end))