diff --git a/hclsyntax/expression.go b/hclsyntax/expression.go
index 7576781..ca59461 100644
--- a/hclsyntax/expression.go
+++ b/hclsyntax/expression.go
@@ -1320,12 +1320,6 @@ func (e *SplatExpr) Value(ctx *hcl.EvalContext) (cty.Value, hcl.Diagnostics) {
 	}
 
 	sourceTy := sourceVal.Type()
-	if sourceTy == cty.DynamicPseudoType {
-		// If we don't even know the _type_ of our source value yet then
-		// we'll need to defer all processing, since we can't decide our
-		// result type either.
-		return cty.DynamicVal, diags
-	}
 
 	// A "special power" of splat expressions is that they can be applied
 	// both to tuples/lists and to other values, and in the latter case
@@ -1349,6 +1343,13 @@ func (e *SplatExpr) Value(ctx *hcl.EvalContext) (cty.Value, hcl.Diagnostics) {
 		return cty.DynamicVal, diags
 	}
 
+	if sourceTy == cty.DynamicPseudoType {
+		// If we don't even know the _type_ of our source value yet then
+		// we'll need to defer all processing, since we can't decide our
+		// result type either.
+		return cty.DynamicVal, diags
+	}
+
 	if autoUpgrade {
 		sourceVal = cty.TupleVal([]cty.Value{sourceVal})
 		sourceTy = sourceVal.Type()
diff --git a/hclsyntax/expression_test.go b/hclsyntax/expression_test.go
index 8faa2ec..f4b4fdf 100644
--- a/hclsyntax/expression_test.go
+++ b/hclsyntax/expression_test.go
@@ -907,6 +907,12 @@ upper(
 			}),
 			0,
 		},
+		{
+			`null[*]`,
+			nil,
+			cty.EmptyTupleVal,
+			0,
+		},
 		{
 			`{name: "Steve"}[*].name`,
 			nil,