Return To Monkey Island: What We Know So Far

Oh yes, that's right.

Thanks to the wonders of Intellectual Property laws, beloved adventure game series "Monkey Island" has been stuck in a sort of purgatory (or maybe trapped in the tunnels of the Big Whoop amusement park?) since 2009, when Telltale Games' "Tales of Monkey Island" debuted. But in actuality, it's been a lot longer than that.

The reins for the series were handed off to other developers and companies after the second game, "LeChuck's Revenge," with creator Ron Gilbert left to just kind of watch from the sidelines. Then Disney shuttered LucasArts in 2013, dashing most fans' hopes of ever getting a proper follow up. At one point Gilbert even reached out to Disney on Twitter, hoping to buy back the rights to the series so he could continue it on his own.

LucasArts was revived several years later in 2021 under the new name of LucasFilm Games, which offered a slim ray of hope for more "Monkey Island," but news on the fates of Guybrush Threepwood, Governor Marley, and LeChuck never came about. Until now.

On April 4th, 2022, announcements from the involved parties began spreading across Twitter. LucasFilm Games, Devolver Digital, and even Gilbert himself have revealed both a teaser trailer and a new website announcing a new sixth game, titled "Return to Monkey Island," which is due out sometime this year.

There's still a fair bit we don't know about "Return to Monkey Island". A specific release date (beyond 2022) and pricing information are both still under wraps, as is the story itself. However, there are some interesting tidbits we can pick out. For starters, "Return to Monkey Island" has been in the works since 2020, and is being handled by LucasFilm Games, Devolver Digital, and Gilbert's Terrible Toybox that produced a sort of "Monkey Island" and "Maniac Mansion" spiritual successor in 2017's "Thimbleweed Park."

The trailer for "Return to Monkey Island" includes fan favorite talking head (literally) Murray from the third game, "Curse of Monkey Island," and it sounds like he's still being voiced by Denny Delk. This has since been confirmed by Gilbert, who stated that Murray will be in the new game "big time." We have additional confirmation that the third game, "Curse of Monkey Island,"isn't being wiped from series canon, though whether or not the fourth and fifth games will also be included hasn't been cleared up yet.

Gilbert has also confirmed that the original composers — Clint Bajakian, Michael Land, and Peter McConnel — are returning along with Dave Grossman, who also worked on the design of the first two games. Oh, and according to the trailer Dominic Armato will be reprising his role as the iconic voice of Guybrush Threepwood himself.

Hopefully we won't have to wait long to learn what happened to Guybrush in the intervening years, how LeChuck's most likely come back (again), and so on.