diff --git a/lib/ansible/parsing/yaml/dumper.py b/lib/ansible/parsing/yaml/dumper.py
index f04c3200f2e1e8..f1d3d8c8a4e5b6 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/parsing/yaml/dumper.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/parsing/yaml/dumper.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 
 from ansible.parsing.yaml.objects import AnsibleUnicode, AnsibleSequence, AnsibleMapping
 from ansible.parsing.yaml.objects import AnsibleVaultEncryptedUnicode
-from ansible.vars.hostvars import HostVars
+from ansible.vars.hostvars import HostVars, HostVarsVars
 from ansible.vars.unsafe_proxy import AnsibleUnsafeText
 
 
@@ -62,6 +62,11 @@ def represent_vault_encrypted_unicode(self, data):
     represent_hostvars,
 )
 
+AnsibleDumper.add_representer(
+    HostVarsVars,
+    represent_hostvars,
+)
+
 AnsibleDumper.add_representer(
     AnsibleSequence,
     yaml.representer.SafeRepresenter.represent_list,
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
index d2ca0f1f535430..9d66e68ecb6b8d 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/filter/core.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
 from ansible.utils.hashing import md5s, checksum_s
 from ansible.utils.unicode import unicode_wrap
 from ansible.utils.vars import merge_hash
-from ansible.vars.hostvars import HostVars
+from ansible.vars.hostvars import HostVars, HostVarsVars
 
 
 UUID_NAMESPACE_ANSIBLE = uuid.UUID('361E6D51-FAEC-444A-9079-341386DA8E2E')
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ class AnsibleJSONEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
     types like HostVars
     '''
     def default(self, o):
-        if isinstance(o, HostVars):
+        if isinstance(o, (HostVars, HostVarsVars)):
             return dict(o)
         else:
             return super(AnsibleJSONEncoder, self).default(o)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py
index b710d47f3befd8..94d662d419b4b0 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@
 from ansible.template.vars import AnsibleJ2Vars
 from ansible.vars.unsafe_proxy import UnsafeProxy, wrap_var
 
+from collections import Sequence, Mapping
+
 try:
     from hashlib import sha1
 except ImportError:
@@ -324,7 +326,7 @@ def _clean_data(self, orig_data):
                 clean_list.append(self._clean_data(list_item))
             ret = clean_list
 
-        elif isinstance(orig_data, dict):
+        elif isinstance(orig_data, (dict, Mapping)):
             clean_dict = {}
             for k in orig_data:
                 clean_dict[self._clean_data(k)] =  self._clean_data(orig_data[k])
@@ -467,7 +469,7 @@ def template(self, variable, convert_bare=False, preserve_trailing_newlines=True
                     overrides=overrides,
                     disable_lookups=disable_lookups,
                     ) for v in variable]
-            elif isinstance(variable, dict):
+            elif isinstance(variable, (dict, Mapping)):
                 d = {}
                 # we don't use iteritems() here to avoid problems if the underlying dict
                 # changes sizes due to the templating, which can happen with hostvars
diff --git a/lib/ansible/vars/hostvars.py b/lib/ansible/vars/hostvars.py
index 0b34248a54afb3..87bef86838d558 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/vars/hostvars.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/vars/hostvars.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
 except ImportError:
     from sha import sha as sha1
 
-__all__ = ['HostVars']
+__all__ = ['HostVars', 'HostVarsVars']
 
 # Note -- this is a Mapping, not a MutableMapping
 class HostVars(collections.Mapping):
@@ -79,14 +79,9 @@ def raw_get(self, host_name):
 
     def __getitem__(self, host_name):
         data = self.raw_get(host_name)
-        sha1_hash = sha1(str(data).encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
-        if sha1_hash in self._cached_result:
-            result = self._cached_result[sha1_hash]
-        else:
-            templar = Templar(variables=data, loader=self._loader)
-            result = templar.template(data, fail_on_undefined=False, static_vars=STATIC_VARS)
-            self._cached_result[sha1_hash] = result
-        return result
+        if isinstance(data, Undefined):
+            return data
+        return HostVarsVars(data, loader=self._loader)
 
     def set_host_variable(self, host, varname, value):
         self._variable_manager.set_host_variable(host, varname, value)
@@ -113,3 +108,28 @@ def __repr__(self):
             name = host.name
             out[name] = self.get(name)
         return repr(out)
+
+
+class HostVarsVars(collections.Mapping):
+
+    def __init__(self, variables, loader):
+        self._vars = variables
+        self._loader = loader
+
+    def __getitem__(self, var):
+        templar = Templar(variables=self._vars, loader=self._loader)
+        foo = templar.template(self._vars[var], fail_on_undefined=False, static_vars=STATIC_VARS)
+        return foo
+
+    def __contains__(self, var):
+        return (var in self._vars)
+
+    def __iter__(self):
+        for var in self._vars.keys():
+            yield var
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        return len(self._vars.keys())
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return repr(self._vars)