An official new MONKEY ISLAND game is coming from its original creators

Adventure game legends Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman are returning to their best-known series for a new game.

Return to Monkey Island is set for release later this year and picks up after the events of Monkey Island II: LeChuck's Revenge.

The series began with The Secret of Monkey Island in 1990, which saw trainee pirate Guybrush Threepwood pitched into battle with the evil ghost pirate LeChuck after he kidnaps Guybrush's would-be girlfriend, Governor Elaine Marlee of Melee Island, and imprisons her on the titular Monkey Island. Guybrush gathers together a crew to help rescue her. The story continues in Monkey Island II (1991), where Guybrush is in search of the fabled treasure of Big Whoop, but once again comes into conflict with LeChuck, now resurrected as a zombie.

Gilbert and Grossman developed the first two games alongside Tim Schafer. LucasArts subsequently released two more games without the trio's involvement: The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) and Escape from Monkey Island (2000). The IP was licensed to Telltale Games, who released Tales of Monkey Island in 2009.

The canonical status of the new game is unclear, save it is a sequel to Monkey Island II and will address that game's infamous cliffhanger (which The Curse of Monkey Island kind of sidesteps). Whether Return to Monkey Island is an interquel set between II and Curse, or an alternate universe kind of sequel, remains to be seen.

The game is being published by Devolver Digital and developed by studio Terrible Toybox, responsible for Gilbert's last game, the splendid LucasArts throwback game Thimbleweed Park.

UPDATE: Ron Gilbert has clarified that the new game takes place between Monkey Island II and Curse of Monkey Island, and will not remove Curse from canon.