diff --git a/mesonbuild/interpreterbase/interpreterbase.py b/mesonbuild/interpreterbase/interpreterbase.py
index 525d5d6c54a0..cbfe97a3afa6 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/interpreterbase/interpreterbase.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/interpreterbase/interpreterbase.py
@@ -543,7 +543,7 @@ def method_call(self, node: mparser.MethodNode) -> T.Optional[InterpreterObject]
         method_name = node.name.value
         (h_args, h_kwargs) = self.reduce_arguments(node.args)
         (args, kwargs) = self._unholder_args(h_args, h_kwargs)
-        if is_disabled(args, kwargs):
+        if is_disabled(args, kwargs) and method_name != 'get_variable':
             return Disabler()
         if not isinstance(obj, InterpreterObject):
             raise InvalidArguments(f'{object_display_name} is not callable.')
diff --git a/test cases/common/280 subproject get_variable disabler/meson.build b/test cases/common/280 subproject get_variable disabler/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..820b9f939a0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test cases/common/280 subproject get_variable disabler/meson.build	
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/13717
+
+project('foo', 'c')
+
+bar_subproj = subproject('bar')
+bar_dep = bar_subproj.get_variable('bar_dep', disabler())
+
+if is_disabler(bar_dep)
+    error('bar_dep is a disabler')
+endif
+
diff --git a/test cases/common/280 subproject get_variable disabler/subprojects/bar/meson.build b/test cases/common/280 subproject get_variable disabler/subprojects/bar/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c23a7f1e0f9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test cases/common/280 subproject get_variable disabler/subprojects/bar/meson.build	
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+project('bar', 'c')
+bar_dep = declare_dependency()