diff --git a/changelog/994.md b/changelog/994.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..16c58c517
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/994.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- Fix that getTemplateVars would return an array of objects instead of the assigned variables values [#994](https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/issues/994)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Data.php b/src/Data.php
index 64a4770ec..f8abe0f6d 100644
--- a/src/Data.php
+++ b/src/Data.php
@@ -224,7 +224,10 @@ public function getTemplateVars($varName = null, $searchParents = true)
 			return $this->getValue($varName, $searchParents);
 	    }
 
-		return array_merge($this->parent && $searchParents ? $this->parent->getTemplateVars() : [], $this->tpl_vars);
+		return array_merge(
+			$this->parent && $searchParents ? $this->parent->getTemplateVars() : [],
+			array_map(function(Variable $var) { return $var->getValue(); }, $this->tpl_vars)
+		);
     }
 
 	/**