diff --git a/tests/remote/test_remote_hostvars.py b/tests/remote/test_remote_hostvars.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6a40f25cab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/remote/test_remote_hostvars.py
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# Copyright 2019 Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import os
+import textwrap
+
+import yaml
+
+from tests.base import AnsibleZuulTestCase
+
+
+class TestZuulHostVars(AnsibleZuulTestCase):
+    tenant_config_file = 'config/remote-zuul-json/main.yaml'
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        super().setUp()
+        self.fake_nodepool.remote_ansible = True
+
+        ansible_remote = os.environ.get('ZUUL_REMOTE_IPV4')
+        self.assertIsNotNone(ansible_remote)
+
+    def _run_job(self, job_name):
+        # Keep the jobdir around so we can inspect contents if an
+        # assert fails. It will be cleaned up anyway as it is contained
+        # in a tmp dir which gets cleaned up after the test.
+        self.executor_server.keep_jobdir = True
+
+        # Output extra ansible info so we might see errors.
+        self.executor_server.verbose = True
+        conf = textwrap.dedent(
+            """
+            - job:
+                name: {job_name}
+                run: playbooks/{job_name}.yaml
+                roles:
+                  - zuul: org/common-config
+                nodeset:
+                  nodes:
+                    - name: controller
+                      label: whatever
+                host-vars:
+                  controller:
+                    ansible_python_interpreter: python2
+
+            - project:
+                check:
+                  jobs:
+                    - {job_name}
+            """.format(job_name=job_name))
+
+        file_dict = {'zuul.yaml': conf}
+        A = self.fake_gerrit.addFakeChange('org/project', 'master', 'A',
+                                           files=file_dict)
+        self.fake_gerrit.addEvent(A.getPatchsetCreatedEvent(1))
+        self.waitUntilSettled()
+
+        job = self.getJobFromHistory(job_name)
+        return job
+
+    def test_hostvars(self):
+        job = self._run_job('no-log')
+        with self.jobLog(job):
+            build = self.history[-1]
+            inventory = yaml.safe_load(open(os.path.join(
+                self.test_root, build.uuid, 'ansible', 'inventory.yaml')))
+            self.assertEqual(
+                "python2",
+                inventory["all"]["hosts"]["controller"][
+                    "ansible_python_interpreter"])
diff --git a/zuul/executor/server.py b/zuul/executor/server.py
index 42be2282f5..1816caa3f6 100644
--- a/zuul/executor/server.py
+++ b/zuul/executor/server.py
@@ -1299,6 +1299,10 @@ class AnsibleJob(object):
                         private_ipv4=node.get('private_ipv4'),
                         public_ipv6=node.get('public_ipv6'))))
 
+                host_vars.setdefault(
+                    'ansible_python_interpreter',
+                    node.get('python_path', '/usr/bin/python2'))
+
                 username = node.get('username')
                 if username:
                     host_vars['ansible_user'] = username
@@ -1668,8 +1672,6 @@ class AnsibleJob(object):
     def prepareAnsibleFiles(self, args):
         all_vars = args['vars'].copy()
         check_varnames(all_vars)
-        # TODO(mordred) Hack to work around running things with python3
-        all_vars['ansible_python_interpreter'] = '/usr/bin/python2'
         all_vars['zuul'] = args['zuul'].copy()
         all_vars['zuul']['executor'] = dict(
             hostname=self.executor_server.hostname,