diff --git a/tasks/release.rb b/tasks/release.rb
index aa8ba44c1ad..6ff06f3c4aa 100644
--- a/tasks/release.rb
+++ b/tasks/release.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 root    = File.expand_path("..", __dir__)
 version = File.read("#{root}/RAILS_VERSION").strip
 tag     = "v#{version}"
-gem_version = Gem::Version.new(version)
 
 directory "pkg"