Legendary video game license born under the star of LucasArts, the Monkey Island saga recounting the thwarted fate of its pirate apprentice Guybrush Threepwood will rise from its ashes this year, under the leadership of its brilliant creator, Ron Gilbert.
Stars in their eyes, a rekindled sacred flame and a big tear of nostalgia. The fabulous license of point’n click games Monkey Islandperhaps the best-known video game saga – if not one of the best-known – returns this year, and under the leadership of its historical progenitor: Ron Gilbert.
Developed for two years within its Terrible Toybox studio, and with the blessing of Lucasfilm Games, which holds the license, the creator of the mythical Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and its fabulous sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991), works alongside Dave Grossman, one of the series’ original writers.
To the music are credited Michael Land, Peter McConnel and Clint Bakajian, who had already worked for the series in the 90s. The actor Dominic Armato, who had lent his voice to Guybrush Threepwood in VO in The Curse of Monkey Islandwill resume his role.
It should be noted that this Return to Monkey Island will be a direct sequel to LeChuck’s Revenge, de facto ruling out the following opuses. Ron Gilbert had at the time designed a narrative arc to make a trilogy, but this 3rd part under his supervision will never see the light of day, in favor of The Curse of Monkey Island. Gilbert therefore resumes his draft to complete, finally, his original vision of the unforgettable saga of Guybrush Threepwood, pirate emeritus.
Here is the teaser. If the graphic style is different, we find with delight one of the cult music of the game, without forgetting the facetious talking skull Murray!
Ron Gilbert’s determination commands admiration. It should be remembered that, in 2012, in the wake of the takeover of Lucasfilm by Disney, and therefore of its video game entity LucasArts (which will be slashed by Mickey…), Gilbert was intensely lobbying Disney to recover the rights, wishing to develop a new Monkey Island game.
“I would like to contact them eventually. I haven’t done anything yet, but I want to do it. I will do it. I would like to get back the rights to Monkey Island in order to develop the game that I really want to create” he said in December 2012.
Legitimate fear of the author to see rotting in the bottom of a drawer such a fabulous license, that even people not experienced in video games know, for the benefit of an exploitation of the Pirates of the Caribbean license.
“Pirates of the Caribbean is a copy of Monkey Island, which is a copy of the Pirates of Disneyland attraction. So I can hardly be enraged at Disney because I was the one originally inspired by them” answered Gilbert.
Ten years later, therefore, Lucasfilm Games and Disney have agreed to let go and given the green light for the start of a real sequel. To say that it is already highly anticipated is an understatement. We can’t wait to redo the mythical insult duels!