diff --git a/core/io/marshalls.cpp b/core/io/marshalls.cpp
index 9e21287780..3e20cc8c9b 100644
--- a/core/io/marshalls.cpp
+++ b/core/io/marshalls.cpp
@@ -1211,7 +1211,9 @@ Error encode_variant(const Variant &p_variant, uint8_t *r_buffer, int &r_len, bo
 				r_len += len;
 				if (buf)
 					buf += len;
-				encode_variant(d[E->get()], buf, len, p_object_as_id);
+				Variant *v = d.getptr(E->get());
+				ERR_FAIL_COND_V(!v, ERR_BUG);
+				encode_variant(*v, buf, len, p_object_as_id);
 				ERR_FAIL_COND_V(len % 4, ERR_BUG);
 				r_len += len;
 				if (buf)