diff --git a/Libraries/Image/Image.ios.js b/Libraries/Image/Image.ios.js
index 5938d48e80651f..48b9c398717802 100644
--- a/Libraries/Image/Image.ios.js
+++ b/Libraries/Image/Image.ios.js
@@ -65,10 +65,11 @@ function prefetchWithMetadata(
   rootTag?: ?number,
 ): any {
   if (NativeImageLoaderIOS.prefetchImageWithMetadata) {
+    // number params like rootTag cannot be nullable before TurboModules is available
     return NativeImageLoaderIOS.prefetchImageWithMetadata(
       url,
       queryRootName,
-      rootTag,
+      rootTag ? rootTag : 0,
     );
   } else {
     return NativeImageLoaderIOS.prefetchImage(url);
diff --git a/Libraries/Image/NativeImageLoaderIOS.js b/Libraries/Image/NativeImageLoaderIOS.js
index cee864e675a872..d0cf74846cfc45 100644
--- a/Libraries/Image/NativeImageLoaderIOS.js
+++ b/Libraries/Image/NativeImageLoaderIOS.js
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ export interface Spec extends TurboModule {
   +prefetchImageWithMetadata?: (
     uri: string,
     queryRootName: string,
-    rootTag?: ?number,
+    rootTag: number,
   ) => Promise<boolean>;
   +queryCache: (uris: Array<string>) => Promise<Object>;
 }
diff --git a/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.mm b/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.mm
index f6a6dbb59eba88..d35d0bb44270da 100644
--- a/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.mm
+++ b/Libraries/Image/RCTImageLoader.mm
@@ -1197,12 +1197,12 @@ - (void)cancelRequest:(id)requestToken
               resolve:(RCTPromiseResolveBlock)resolve
                reject:(RCTPromiseRejectBlock)reject)
 {
-  [self prefetchImageWithMetadata:uri queryRootName:nil rootTag:nil resolve:resolve reject:reject];
+  [self prefetchImageWithMetadata:uri queryRootName:nil rootTag:0 resolve:resolve reject:reject];
 }
 
 RCT_EXPORT_METHOD(prefetchImageWithMetadata:(NSString *)uri
                   queryRootName:(NSString *)queryRootName
-                  rootTag:(NSNumber *)rootTag
+                  rootTag:(double)rootTag
               resolve:(RCTPromiseResolveBlock)resolve
                reject:(RCTPromiseRejectBlock)reject)
 {
@@ -1215,7 +1215,7 @@ - (void)cancelRequest:(id)requestToken
                        priority:RCTImageLoaderPriorityPrefetch
                     attribution:{
                                   .queryRootName = queryRootName ? [queryRootName UTF8String] : "",
-                                  .surfaceId = [rootTag intValue],
+                                  .surfaceId = (int)rootTag,
                                 }
                   progressBlock:nil
                partialLoadBlock:nil