The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the most influential games of all time, defining the 90s era of point-and-click adventure games created by LucasArts. Creators such as The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann have cited the game as a major influence, and it helped launch the career of Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer. Now, over 10 years after the last title, Lucasfilm Games, Devolver Digital, and Terrible Toybox have announced Return to Monkey Island, a new canonical third entry from original creators Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman.
The Secret of Monkey Island first released in 1990 and quickly went on to become a huge success for Lucasfilm Games (later known as LucasArts.) The game was quickly followed by a sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, in 1991, which once again followed wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he searched for the legendary treasure "Big Whoop." At the time, Monkey Island 2's ending was somewhat controversial. With series creator Ron Gilbert leaving in 1992 to found Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam developer Humongous Entertainment, LucasArts continued the series mainly ignoring the second game's ending.
Hopes for a new Monkey Island led by Gilbert arose in 2012, when Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.1 billion. Gilbert offered to create a new Monkey Island game, should Disney sell him the rights. This, unfortunately, did not work out, and Gilbert went on to found his own studio Terrible Toybox and release Thimbleweed Park in 2017. In 2021, Disney announced a new video game publishing arm, once again called Lucasfilm Games, alongside the reveal of new Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. It appears now that the company is looking to dive into Lucasfilm's video game back-catalog with the reveal of Return to Monkey Island, which is led by Gilbert along with co-creator Dave Grossman.
The game was announced out of nowhere today after Gilbert jokingly teased that he was making a new Monkey Island game on April Fool's Day. The game will be a new third canonical entry, effectively removing Curse of Monkey Island, Escape From Monkey Island, and Tales of Monkey Island from the series' timeline. It will be published by both Lucasfilm Games and Devolver Digital. Platforms have not been revealed, but it's likely to at least come to PC given the series' history.
Ron Gilbert confirmed on Twitter that Terrible Toybox has been developing the game in secret for two years now, which explains how the game is surprisingly slated to release later in 2022. Series composer Peter McConnell will also be returning for the game's soundtrack, and Knights and Bikes co-creator and Tearaway creative lead Rex Crowle will be directing the game's art.
Return to Monkey Island will release in 2022.