diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py
index 99858026ce..0e902797cf 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py
@@ -742,7 +742,6 @@ class ActionBase(with_metaclass(ABCMeta, object)):
 
         # remove internal keys
         self._remove_internal_keys(data)
-        data['_ansible_parsed'] = True
 
         # cleanup tmp?
         if (self._play_context.become and self._play_context.become_user != 'root') and not persist_files and delete_remote_tmp or tmpdir_delete:
@@ -767,7 +766,7 @@ class ActionBase(with_metaclass(ABCMeta, object)):
 
     def _remove_internal_keys(self, data):
         for key in list(data.keys()):
-            if key.startswith('_ansible_') or key in C.INTERNAL_RESULT_KEYS:
+            if key.startswith('_ansible_') and key != '_ansible_parsed' or key in C.INTERNAL_RESULT_KEYS:
                 display.warning("Removed unexpected internal key in module return: %s = %s" % (key, data[key]))
                 del data[key]
 
@@ -824,6 +823,7 @@ class ActionBase(with_metaclass(ABCMeta, object)):
             if 'ansible_facts' in data and isinstance(data['ansible_facts'], dict):
                 self._clean_returned_data(data['ansible_facts'])
                 data['ansible_facts'] = wrap_var(data['ansible_facts'])
+            data['_ansible_parsed'] = True
         except ValueError:
             # not valid json, lets try to capture error
             data = dict(failed=True, _ansible_parsed=False)
diff --git a/test/units/plugins/action/test_action.py b/test/units/plugins/action/test_action.py
index 3b0faa0b43..910d1192f4 100644
--- a/test/units/plugins/action/test_action.py
+++ b/test/units/plugins/action/test_action.py
@@ -591,6 +591,7 @@ class TestActionBaseParseReturnedData(unittest.TestCase):
                          'stdout_lines': stdout.splitlines(),
                          'stderr': err}
         res = action_base._parse_returned_data(returned_data)
+        del res['_ansible_parsed'] # we always have _ansible_parsed
         self.assertEqual(len(res), 0)
         self.assertFalse(res)