Monkey Island returns in Return to Monkey Island

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The new adventure is being helmed by original Monkey men Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman.

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The legendary Lucasarts adventure series Monkey Island will return later this year with an all new game, appropriately entitled Return to Monkey Island, headed up by original series creator Ron Gilbert.

Return to Monkey Island is being developed by Gilbert's Terrible Toybox studio, in collaboration with Devolver Digital and Lucasfilm Games, the legendary studio label resurrected by Disney in early 2021. The announcement trailer doesn't reveal anything about the story (or why Ron Gilbert agreed to make another Monkey Island game after all these years), but the game will follow on Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and so apparently be unrelated to Telltale's 2009 Tales of Monkey Island, the last game in the series.

Gilbert revealed separately that he's actually been working on Return to Monkey Island for the past two years, "in complete secrecy."

Gilbert's not the only LucasArts luminary working on the new game: Dave Grossman, a writer and programmer on the Monkey Island series and a pile of other Lucas adventures, is also taking part:

I've always been more of a Sam and Max/Full Throttle fan, but the Monkey Island games, which follow the adventures of would-be pirate (and occasional goofball) Guybrush Threepwood, are widely considered to be the pinnacle of the LucasArts adventure era. He is, however, a master of Insult Swordfighting, which I hope (and, honestly, fully expect) will return in the new game.

Return to Monkey Island is slated to be out later this year. Find out more at returntomonkeyisland.com.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.