diff --git a/roles/pull-from-intermediate-registry/vars/main.yaml b/roles/pull-from-intermediate-registry/vars/main.yaml
index 9e9c6f45f..553a201a7 100644
--- a/roles/pull-from-intermediate-registry/vars/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/pull-from-intermediate-registry/vars/main.yaml
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # The tests override this variable, which is why we don't use
 # zuul.artifacts directly.
-zuul_artifacts: "{{ zuul.artifacts }}"
+zuul_artifacts: "{{ zuul.artifacts | default([]) }}"