diff --git a/src/PIL/_version.py b/src/PIL/_version.py
index d94d3593440..c5c37fe91d6 100644
--- a/src/PIL/_version.py
+++ b/src/PIL/_version.py
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 # Master version for Pillow
-__version__ = "9.5.0"
+__version__ = "9.6.0.dev0"