diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/5404-django-manage-venv-deprecation.yml b/changelogs/fragments/5404-django-manage-venv-deprecation.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f6a8e6e01eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/5404-django-manage-venv-deprecation.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+deprecated_features:
+  - >-
+    django_manage - the behavior of "creating the virtual environment when missing"
+    is being deprecated and will be removed in community.general version 9.0.0
+    (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/5405).
diff --git a/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/django_manage.py b/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/django_manage.py
index 0d68e926eb1..e6901be33ea 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/django_manage.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/web_infrastructure/django_manage.py
@@ -109,11 +109,24 @@
     type: str
     required: false
     aliases: [test_runner]
+  ack_venv_creation_deprecation:
+    description:
+      - >-
+        When a I(virtualenv) is set but the virtual environment does not exist, the current behavior is
+        to create a new virtual environment. That behavior is deprecated and if that case happens it will
+        generate a deprecation warning. Set this flag to C(true) to suppress the deprecation warning.
+      - Please note that you will receive no further warning about this being removed until the module
+        will start failing in such cases from community.general 9.0.0 on.
+    type: bool
+    version_added: 5.8.0
+
 notes:
   - C(virtualenv) (U(http://www.virtualenv.org)) must be installed on the remote host if the I(virtualenv) parameter
-    is specified.
+    is specified. This requirement is deprecated and will be removed in community.general version 9.0.0.
   - This module will create a virtualenv if the I(virtualenv) parameter is specified and a virtual environment does not already
-    exist at the given location.
+    exist at the given location. This behavior is deprecated and will be removed in community.general version 9.0.0.
+  - The parameter I(virtualenv) will remain in use, but it will require the specified virtualenv to exist.
+    The recommended way to create one in Ansible is by using M(ansible.builtin.pip).
   - This module assumes English error messages for the C(createcachetable) command to detect table existence,
     unfortunately.
   - To be able to use the C(migrate) command with django versions < 1.7, you must have C(south) installed and added
@@ -183,6 +196,17 @@ def _ensure_virtualenv(module):
     activate = os.path.join(vbin, 'activate')
 
     if not os.path.exists(activate):
+        # In version 9.0.0, if the venv is not found, it should fail_json() here.
+        if not module.params['ack_venv_creation_deprecation']:
+            module.deprecate(
+                'The behavior of "creating the virtual environment when missing" is being '
+                'deprecated and will be removed in community.general version 9.0.0. '
+                'Set the module parameter `ack_venv_creation_deprecation: true` to '
+                'prevent this message from showing up when creating a virtualenv.',
+                version='9.0.0',
+                collection_name='community.general',
+            )
+
         virtualenv = module.get_bin_path('virtualenv', True)
         vcmd = [virtualenv, venv_param]
         rc, out_venv, err_venv = module.run_command(vcmd)
@@ -272,6 +296,7 @@ def main():
             skip=dict(type='bool'),
             merge=dict(type='bool'),
             link=dict(type='bool'),
+            ack_venv_creation_deprecation=dict(type='bool'),
         ),
     )