diff --git a/panda/src/pgraph/pandaNode.cxx b/panda/src/pgraph/pandaNode.cxx
index 79ca3bf582..b440e3fc85 100644
--- a/panda/src/pgraph/pandaNode.cxx
+++ b/panda/src/pgraph/pandaNode.cxx
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ complete_pointers(TypedWritable **p_list, BamReader *manager) {
   // Get the parent pointers.
   Up::iterator ui;
   for (ui = _up.begin(); ui != _up.end(); ++ui) {
-    PT(PandaNode) parent_node = DCAST(PandaNode, p_list[pi++]);
+    PandaNode *parent_node = DCAST(PandaNode, p_list[pi++]);
 
     // For some reason, VC++ won't accept UpConnection as an inline
     // temporary constructor here ("C2226: unexpected type