diff --git a/changelog.d/1788.change.rst b/changelog.d/1788.change.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d8a49fd41d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/1788.change.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Changed compatibility fallback logic for ``html.unescape`` to avoid accessing ``HTMLParser.unescape`` when not necessary. ``HTMLParser.unescape`` is deprecated and will be removed in Python 3.9.
diff --git a/setuptools/py33compat.py b/setuptools/py33compat.py
index 87cf53983c..cb69443638 100644
--- a/setuptools/py33compat.py
+++ b/setuptools/py33compat.py
@@ -52,4 +52,8 @@ def __iter__(self):
 Bytecode = getattr(dis, 'Bytecode', Bytecode_compat)
 
 
-unescape = getattr(html, 'unescape', html_parser.HTMLParser().unescape)
+unescape = getattr(html, 'unescape', None)
+if unescape is None:
+    # HTMLParser.unescape is deprecated since Python 3.4, and will be removed
+    # from 3.9.
+    unescape = html_parser.HTMLParser().unescape