diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/4368-reverts-4281.yml b/changelogs/fragments/4368-reverts-4281.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b179ac7801
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/4368-reverts-4281.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "terraform - revert bugfix https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/4281 that tried to fix ``variable`` handling to allow complex values.
+     It turned out that this was breaking several valid use-cases (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/4367, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/4370)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/terraform.py b/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/terraform.py
index 310dd77c8e..8eca14e712 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/terraform.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/cloud/misc/terraform.py
@@ -443,7 +443,7 @@ def main():
     for k, v in variables.items():
         variables_args.extend([
             '-var',
-            '{0}={1}'.format(k, json.dumps(v))
+            '{0}={1}'.format(k, v)
         ])
     if variables_files:
         for f in variables_files: