diff --git a/src/render/vulkan/SDL_render_vulkan.c b/src/render/vulkan/SDL_render_vulkan.c
index 6eff6c4daf..eebc8356de 100644
--- a/src/render/vulkan/SDL_render_vulkan.c
+++ b/src/render/vulkan/SDL_render_vulkan.c
@@ -3760,7 +3760,7 @@ static VkSampler VULKAN_GetSampler(VULKAN_RenderData *data, SDL_ScaleMode scale_
         VkResult result = vkCreateSampler(data->device, &samplerCreateInfo, NULL, &data->samplers[key]);
         if (result != VK_SUCCESS) {
             SET_ERROR_CODE("vkCreateSampler()", result);
-            return false;
+            return VK_NULL_HANDLE;
         }
     }
     return data->samplers[key];