diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/figure.pyi b/lib/matplotlib/figure.pyi
index b079312695c1..c31f90b4b2a8 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/figure.pyi
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/figure.pyi
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ class FigureBase(Artist):
         height_ratios: Sequence[float] | None = ...,
         subplot_kw: dict[str, Any] | None = ...,
         gridspec_kw: dict[str, Any] | None = ...,
-    ) -> Axes | np.ndarray: ...
+    ) -> Any: ...
     def delaxes(self, ax: Axes) -> None: ...
     def clear(self, keep_observers: bool = ...) -> None: ...
     def clf(self, keep_observers: bool = ...) -> None: ...
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/pyplot.py b/lib/matplotlib/pyplot.py
index 441af598dbc6..9587850173d6 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/pyplot.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/pyplot.py
@@ -1609,7 +1609,7 @@ def subplots(
     subplot_kw: dict[str, Any] | None = ...,
     gridspec_kw: dict[str, Any] | None = ...,
     **fig_kw
-) -> tuple[Figure, Axes | np.ndarray]:
+) -> tuple[Figure, Any]:
     ...