diff --git a/hacking/module_formatter.py b/hacking/module_formatter.py
index 0a7d1c884ca..7955076e490 100755
--- a/hacking/module_formatter.py
+++ b/hacking/module_formatter.py
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ def process_module(module, options, env, template, outputname, module_map, alias
     print "rendering: %s" % module
 
     # use ansible core library to parse out doc metadata YAML and plaintext examples
-    doc, examples = ansible.utils.module_docs.get_docstring(fname, verbose=options.verbose)
+    doc, examples, returndocs= ansible.utils.module_docs.get_docstring(fname, verbose=options.verbose)
 
     # crash if module is missing documentation and not explicitly hidden from docs index
     if doc is None: