diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go
index ad260ae491a..fa2e3220e40 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/scheme.go
@@ -163,22 +163,13 @@ func (s *Scheme) AddUnversionedTypes(version schema.GroupVersion, types ...Objec
 // the struct becomes the "kind" field when encoding. Version may not be empty - use the
 // APIVersionInternal constant if you have a type that does not have a formal version.
 func (s *Scheme) AddKnownTypes(gv schema.GroupVersion, types ...Object) {
-	if len(gv.Version) == 0 {
-		panic(fmt.Sprintf("version is required on all types: %s %v", gv, types[0]))
-	}
 	for _, obj := range types {
 		t := reflect.TypeOf(obj)
 		if t.Kind() != reflect.Ptr {
 			panic("All types must be pointers to structs.")
 		}
 		t = t.Elem()
-		if t.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
-			panic("All types must be pointers to structs.")
-		}
-
-		gvk := gv.WithKind(t.Name())
-		s.gvkToType[gvk] = t
-		s.typeToGVK[t] = append(s.typeToGVK[t], gvk)
+		s.AddKnownTypeWithName(gv.WithKind(t.Name()), obj)
 	}
 }