diff --git a/newsfragments/4244.bugfix.rst b/newsfragments/4244.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5d606de718
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/4244.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Return an empty `list` by default in ``pkg_resources.ResourceManager.cleanup_resources`` -- by :user:`Avasam`
diff --git a/pkg_resources/__init__.py b/pkg_resources/__init__.py
index 10c6a9cd06..67883b11f1 100644
--- a/pkg_resources/__init__.py
+++ b/pkg_resources/__init__.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 import time
 import re
 import types
-from typing import Protocol
+from typing import List, Protocol
 import zipfile
 import zipimport
 import warnings
@@ -1339,7 +1339,7 @@ def set_extraction_path(self, path):
 
         self.extraction_path = path
 
-    def cleanup_resources(self, force=False):
+    def cleanup_resources(self, force=False) -> List[str]:
         """
         Delete all extracted resource files and directories, returning a list
         of the file and directory names that could not be successfully removed.
@@ -1351,6 +1351,7 @@ def cleanup_resources(self, force=False):
         directory used for extractions.
         """
         # XXX
+        return []
 
 
 def get_default_cache():