diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/Instantiator.php b/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/Instantiator.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..0061d76e7842f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/Instantiator.php
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * This file is part of the Symfony package.
+ *
+ * (c) Fabien Potencier <fabien@symfony.com>
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
+ * file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace Symfony\Component\VarExporter;
+
+use Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Exception\ExceptionInterface;
+use Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Exception\NotInstantiableTypeException;
+use Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Internal\Hydrator;
+use Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Internal\Registry;
+
+/**
+ * A utility class to create objects without calling their constructor.
+ *
+ * @author Nicolas Grekas <p@tchwork.com>
+ */
+final class Instantiator
+{
+    /**
+     * Creates an object and sets its properties without calling its constructor nor any other methods.
+     *
+     * For example:
+     *
+     *     // creates an empty instance of Foo
+     *     Instantiator::instantiate(Foo::class);
+     *
+     *     // creates a Foo instance and sets one of its properties
+     *     Instantiator::instantiate(Foo::class, ['propertyName' => $propertyValue]);
+     *
+     *     // creates a Foo instance and sets a private property defined on its parent Bar class
+     *     Instantiator::instantiate(Foo::class, [], [
+     *         Bar::class => ['privateBarProperty' => $propertyValue],
+     *     ]);
+     *
+     * Instances of ArrayObject, ArrayIterator and SplObjectHash can be created
+     * by using the special "\0" property name to define their internal value:
+     *
+     *     // creates an SplObjectHash where $info1 is attached to $obj1, etc.
+     *     Instantiator::instantiate(SplObjectStorage::class, ["\0" => [$obj1, $info1, $obj2, $info2...]]);
+     *
+     *     // creates an ArrayObject populated with $inputArray
+     *     Instantiator::instantiate(ArrayObject::class, ["\0" => [$inputArray]]);
+     *
+     * @param string $class             The class of the instance to create
+     * @param array  $properties        The properties to set on the instance
+     * @param array  $privateProperties The private properties to set on the instance,
+     *                                  keyed by their declaring class
+     *
+     * @return object The created instance
+     *
+     * @throws ExceptionInterface When the instance cannot be created
+     */
+    public static function instantiate(string $class, array $properties = array(), array $privateProperties = array())
+    {
+        $reflector = Registry::$reflectors[$class] ?? Registry::getClassReflector($class);
+
+        if (Registry::$cloneable[$class]) {
+            $wrappedInstance = array(clone Registry::$prototypes[$class]);
+        } elseif (Registry::$instantiableWithoutConstructor[$class]) {
+            $wrappedInstance = array($reflector->newInstanceWithoutConstructor());
+        } elseif (null === Registry::$prototypes[$class]) {
+            throw new NotInstantiableTypeException($class);
+        } elseif ($reflector->implementsInterface('Serializable')) {
+            $wrappedInstance = array(unserialize('C:'.\strlen($class).':"'.$class.'":0:{}'));
+        } else {
+            $wrappedInstance = array(unserialize('O:'.\strlen($class).':"'.$class.'":0:{}'));
+        }
+
+        if ($properties) {
+            $privateProperties[$class] = isset($privateProperties[$class]) ? $properties + $privateProperties[$class] : $properties;
+        }
+
+        foreach ($privateProperties as $class => $properties) {
+            if (!$properties) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            foreach ($properties as $name => $value) {
+                // because they're also used for "unserialization", hydrators
+                // deal with array of instances, so we need to wrap values
+                $properties[$name] = array($value);
+            }
+            (Hydrator::$hydrators[$class] ?? Hydrator::getHydrator($class))($properties, $wrappedInstance);
+        }
+
+        return $wrappedInstance[0];
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/README.md b/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/README.md
index c8b1b1f173a80..c3a072127e4de 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/README.md
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ The VarExporter component allows exporting any serializable PHP data structure t
 plain PHP code. While doing so, it preserves all the semantics associated with
 the serialization mechanism of PHP (`__wakeup`, `__sleep`, `Serializable`).
 
+It also provides an instantiator that allows creating and populating objects
+without calling their constructor nor any other methods.
+
 The reason to use this component *vs* `serialize()` or
 [igbinary](https://github.com/igbinary/igbinary) is performance: thanks to
 OPcache, the resulting code is significantly faster and more memory efficient
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/Tests/InstantiatorTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/Tests/InstantiatorTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..2cb8e7a359d31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/VarExporter/Tests/InstantiatorTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * This file is part of the Symfony package.
+ *
+ * (c) Fabien Potencier <fabien@symfony.com>
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
+ * file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Tests;
+
+use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+use Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Instantiator;
+
+class InstantiatorTest extends TestCase
+{
+    /**
+     * @expectedException \Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Exception\ClassNotFoundException
+     * @expectedExceptionMessage Class "SomeNotExistingClass" not found.
+     */
+    public function testNotFoundClass()
+    {
+        Instantiator::instantiate('SomeNotExistingClass');
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider provideFailingInstantiation
+     * @expectedException \Symfony\Component\VarExporter\Exception\NotInstantiableTypeException
+     * @expectedExceptionMessageRegexp Type ".*" is not instantiable.
+     */
+    public function testFailingInstantiation(string $class)
+    {
+        Instantiator::instantiate($class);
+    }
+
+    public function provideFailingInstantiation()
+    {
+        yield array('ReflectionClass');
+        yield array('SplHeap');
+        yield array('Throwable');
+        yield array('Closure');
+        yield array('SplFileInfo');
+    }
+
+    public function testInstantiate()
+    {
+        $this->assertEquals((object) array('p' => 123), Instantiator::instantiate('stdClass', array('p' => 123)));
+        $this->assertEquals((object) array('p' => 123), Instantiator::instantiate('STDcLASS', array('p' => 123)));
+        $this->assertEquals(new \ArrayObject(array(123)), Instantiator::instantiate(\ArrayObject::class, array("\0" => array(array(123)))));
+
+        $expected = array(
+            "\0".__NAMESPACE__."\Bar\0priv" => 123,
+            "\0".__NAMESPACE__."\Foo\0priv" => 234,
+        );
+
+        $this->assertSame($expected, (array) Instantiator::instantiate(Bar::class, array('priv' => 123), array(Foo::class => array('priv' => 234))));
+
+        $e = Instantiator::instantiate('Exception', array('foo' => 123, 'trace' => array(234)));
+
+        $this->assertSame(123, $e->foo);
+        $this->assertSame(array(234), $e->getTrace());
+    }
+}
+
+class Foo
+{
+    private $priv;
+}
+
+class Bar extends Foo
+{
+    private $priv;
+}