diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_wheels.yml b/.github/workflows/build_wheels.yml
index d6969a9c2e..dd091641ef 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_wheels.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_wheels.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ on:
         type: string
         description: 'Version tag'
         required: true
-        default: '3.1.0'
+        default: '3.1'
 
 jobs:
   build_wheels:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8418f5310f..e72afcdd5f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ license = { file = "LICENSE" }
 
 requires-python = '>=3.9'
 dependencies = [
+    "numpy>=1.23.5, <2; python_version<'3.10'",
     "numpy>=1.23.5; python_version<'3.12'",
     "numpy>=1.26.0; python_version>='3.12'",
     "pandas >=1.3.0,<3.0",
@@ -77,7 +78,8 @@ requires = [
     'wheel>=0.36.0',
     'Cython>=0.29.21',
     #    'Cython>=3',
-    "numpy>=2.0.0rc1",
+    'numpy>=2.0.0rc1 ; python_version>"3.9"',
+    'numpy<2.0 ; python_version<="3.9"'
     #    'oldest-supported-numpy; python_version>="3.9"',
 ]
 build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'
@@ -95,7 +97,8 @@ test = [
     'matplotlib >=1.5.3',
     'responses >=0.9.0',
     'pandas-datareader >=0.2.1',
-    'click <8.1.0',
+#    'click <8.1.0',
+    'click',
     'coverage',
     'pytest-rerunfailures',
 ]
diff --git a/src/zipline/examples/__init__.py b/src/zipline/examples/__init__.py
index e474acd74f..255c30bfbf 100644
--- a/src/zipline/examples/__init__.py
+++ b/src/zipline/examples/__init__.py
@@ -12,14 +12,17 @@
 
 NUMPY2 = Version(numpy.__version__) >= Version("2.0.0")
 if not NUMPY2:
-    import talib
+    try:
+        import talib
+    except ImportError:
+        talib = None
 
 
 # These are used by test_examples.py to discover the examples to run.
 def load_example_modules():
     example_modules = {}
     for f in os.listdir(os.path.dirname(__file__)):
-        if NUMPY2 and f == "dual_ema_talib.py":
+        if (NUMPY2 or talib is None) and f == "dual_ema_talib.py":
             continue
         if not f.endswith(".py") or f == "__init__.py" or f == "buyapple_ide.py":
             continue
diff --git a/tests/pipeline/test_technical.py b/tests/pipeline/test_technical.py
index 3ed5fd9d96..b1a9d37525 100644
--- a/tests/pipeline/test_technical.py
+++ b/tests/pipeline/test_technical.py
@@ -22,10 +22,13 @@
 import pytest
 import re
 
-# talib is not yet compatible with numpy 2.0
+# talib is not yet compatible with numpy 2.0, and also now optional.
 NUMPY2 = Version(np.__version__) >= Version("2.0.0")
 if not NUMPY2:
-    import talib
+    try:
+        import talib
+    except ImportError:
+        talib = None
 
 
 class BollingerBandsTestCase(BaseUSEquityPipelineTestCase):
@@ -79,7 +82,7 @@ def expected_bbands(self, window_length, k, closes):
         mask_last_sid={True, False},
         __fail_fast=True,
     )
-    @pytest.mark.skipif(NUMPY2, reason="requires numpy 1.0")
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(NUMPY2 or talib is None, reason="requires numpy 1.0")
     def test_bollinger_bands(self, window_length, k, mask_last_sid):
         closes = self.closes(mask_last_sid=mask_last_sid)
         mask = ~np.isnan(closes)
@@ -199,7 +202,7 @@ def test_fso_expected_basic(self):
             range(5),
         ],
     )
-    @pytest.mark.skipif(NUMPY2, reason="requires numpy 1.0")
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(NUMPY2 or talib is None, reason="requires numpy 1.0")
     def test_fso_expected_with_talib(self, seed):
         """
         Test the output that is returned from the fast stochastic oscillator