‘Return To Monkey Island’ is the “exciting conclusion” to the series

Following the surprise announcement that series creator Ron Gilbert would be returning to Monkey Island for the first time in over 30 years, it looks like Return To Monkey Island will be a one-off.

Confirmed earlier this year, Return To Monkey Island is a direct sequel to 1990’s The Secret Of Monkey Island and 1991’s Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. While three more Monkey Island games followed, they didn’t involve Gilbert.

However, according to the official website, this reunion will be short lived. A description reads: “The exciting conclusion to the Monkey Island series marks the return of the iconic series’ creator Ron Gilbert, joined by game co-writer/designer Dave Grossman, art director Rex Crowle (Knights & Bikes, Tearaway) and composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian (Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge),” with an emphasis on the word “conclusion”.

Speaking about the importance of the game picking up where LeChuck’s Revenge ended Gilbert told Adventure Gamers “that was kind of my one criteria: we need to start the game there. I don’t want to go into all the details of it, but we do start there, and then it takes lots of weird twists and turns that you would expect from us.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Gilbert confirmed that while the new game is a direct sequel, it isn’t the same game the pair would have made in the ‘90s.

“The honest truth is that neither of us would be able to make the game we would have made back then. We’re different people,” Gilbert said “The ideas I had floating around in my head for what my Monkey Island 3 would have been, a lot of those ideas have already been done”.

CANNOT WAIT https://t.co/Qtmx2zyqgE

— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) June 29, 2022

Yesterday (June 28) a new trailer for the title was released alongside confirmation that Return To Monkey Island would be getting released for PC and Nintendo Switch, though the exact launch date is still to be announced.