diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -198,6 +198,8 @@
 - Issue #15111: __import__ should propagate ImportError when raised as a
   side-effect of a module triggered from using fromlist.
 
+- Issue #???: Drop restriction that meta.__prepare__() must return a dict.
+
 Library
 -------
 
diff --git a/Objects/typeobject.c b/Objects/typeobject.c
--- a/Objects/typeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/typeobject.c
@@ -2014,10 +2014,10 @@
     }
 
     /* Check arguments: (name, bases, dict) */
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "UO!O!:type", kwlist,
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "UO!O:type", kwlist,
                                      &name,
                                      &PyTuple_Type, &bases,
-                                     &PyDict_Type, &orig_dict))
+                                     &orig_dict))
         return NULL;
 
     /* Determine the proper metatype to deal with this: */
@@ -2055,7 +2055,11 @@
         goto error;
     }
 
-    dict = PyDict_Copy(orig_dict);
+    if (PyDict_Check(orig_dict))
+        dict = PyDict_Copy(orig_dict);
+    else
+        dict = PyObject_CallFunctionObjArgs((PyObject *)&PyDict_Type,
+                                            orig_dict, NULL);
     if (dict == NULL)
         goto error;