diff --git a/src/Runtime/EscaperRuntime.php b/src/Runtime/EscaperRuntime.php
index a660b9d63..f686e19f0 100644
--- a/src/Runtime/EscaperRuntime.php
+++ b/src/Runtime/EscaperRuntime.php
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ final class EscaperRuntime implements RuntimeExtensionInterface
                      * @license   https://framework.zend.com/license/new-bsd New BSD License
                      */
                     $chr = $matches[0];
-                    $ord = \ord($chr);
+                    $ord = \ord($chr[0]);
 
                     /*
                     * The following replaces characters undefined in HTML with the