diff --git a/Objects/typeobject.c b/Objects/typeobject.c
--- a/Objects/typeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/typeobject.c
@@ -2283,11 +2283,11 @@ type_new(PyTypeObject *metatype, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
     assert(kwds == NULL || PyDict_Check(kwds));
 
     /* Special case: type(x) should return x->ob_type */
-    {
+    if (metatype == &PyType_Type) {
         const Py_ssize_t nargs = PyTuple_GET_SIZE(args);
         const Py_ssize_t nkwds = kwds == NULL ? 0 : PyDict_Size(kwds);
 
-        if (PyType_CheckExact(metatype) && nargs == 1 && nkwds == 0) {
+        if (nargs == 1 && nkwds == 0) {
             PyObject *x = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(args, 0);
             Py_INCREF(Py_TYPE(x));
             return (PyObject *) Py_TYPE(x);