diff --git a/news/4615.bugfix.rst b/news/4615.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..033e6b4445
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/4615.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix bug where environment wouldn't activate in paths containing () and [] symbols
diff --git a/pipenv/project.py b/pipenv/project.py
index 90ff16fbce..9709609faa 100644
--- a/pipenv/project.py
+++ b/pipenv/project.py
@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ def _sanitize(cls, name):
         #   https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Double-Quotes.html
         #   http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/special-chars.html#FIELDREF
         #   https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/2bfe01ef/include/uapi/linux/binfmts.h#L18
-        return re.sub(r'[ &$`!*@"\\\r\n\t]', "_", name)[0:42]
+        return re.sub(r'[ &$`!*@"()\[\]\\\r\n\t]', "_", name)[0:42]
 
     def _get_virtualenv_hash(self, name):
         # type: (str) -> str
diff --git a/pipenv/shells.py b/pipenv/shells.py
index 5a9aae2abc..af3b0c03bf 100644
--- a/pipenv/shells.py
+++ b/pipenv/shells.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def _get_activate_script(cmd, venv):
         command = "."
     # Escape any special characters located within the virtualenv path to allow
     # for proper activation.
-    venv_location = re.sub(r'([ &$])', r"\\\1", str(venv))
+    venv_location = re.sub(r'([ &$()\[\]])', r"\\\1", str(venv))
     # The leading space can make history cleaner in some shells.
     return " {2} {0}/bin/activate{1}".format(venv_location, suffix, command)