diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/tweaking_interpreter_discovery.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/tweaking_interpreter_discovery.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cd7d69cd873
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/tweaking_interpreter_discovery.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+    - interpreter discovery is now handling special (ansible_network_os) cases in less noisy ways.
diff --git a/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py b/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
index 987ae4dc3d6..781394fa96b 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
@@ -539,6 +539,12 @@ class TaskExecutor:
         plugin_vars = self._set_connection_options(cvars, templar)
         templar.available_variables = orig_vars
 
+        # TODO: eventually remove this block as this should be a 'consequence' of 'forced_local' modules
+        # special handling for python interpreter for network_os, default to ansible python unless overriden
+        if 'ansible_network_os' in cvars and 'ansible_python_interpreter' not in cvars:
+            # this also avoids 'python discovery'
+            cvars['ansible_python_interpreter'] = sys.executable
+
         # get handler
         self._handler = self._get_action_handler(connection=self._connection, templar=templar)