diff --git a/roles/kubespray-defaults/defaults/main.yaml b/roles/kubespray-defaults/defaults/main.yaml
index 30b5155ff..db63a65a9 100644
--- a/roles/kubespray-defaults/defaults/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/kubespray-defaults/defaults/main.yaml
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ rbac_enabled: "{{ 'RBAC' in authorization_modes or kubeadm_enabled }}"
 
 ## List of key=value pairs that describe feature gates for
 ## the k8s cluster.
-kube_feature_gates: ['Initializers=true', 'PersistentLocalVolumes={{ local_volumes_enabled|string }}']
+kube_feature_gates: ['Initializers={{ istio_enabled|string }}', 'PersistentLocalVolumes={{ local_volumes_enabled|string }}']
 
 # Vault data dirs.
 vault_base_dir: /etc/vault