diff --git a/src/PIL/__init__.py b/src/PIL/__init__.py
index 62ad95248..4ed2e4775 100644
--- a/src/PIL/__init__.py
+++ b/src/PIL/__init__.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 from . import version
 
+# PILLOW_VERSION and VERSION are deprecated and will be removed in Pillow 6.0.0. Use __version__ instead.
 PILLOW_VERSION = VERSION = __version__ = version.__version__
 
 _plugins = ['BlpImagePlugin',