Ahead of Return to Monkey Island’s release next week, I sat down with series creator Ron Gilbert, co-writer Dave Grossman and art director Rex Crowle to discuss the series’ surprise revival. It’s a project many thought would never happen, but which had actually been in secret development for two years (two years!) before its April Fool’s Day announcement a few months ago.
Speaking via video call, it was clear the trio had a great passion for what they do – and also an oversized Stan S. Stanman cutout, which loomed over Gilbert’s shoulder. (This turned out to be a prop from a recent PAX trip liberated by Gilbert, thanks to the series’ iconic distraction of “Look! A three-headed monkey”. Apparently, this move works “every time”.)
In addition to sharing more about Return to Monkey Island, including details of its under-wraps hint system, we spoke about the future of the series, scrapped plans to break up Guybrush and Elaine, and even ideas for Elaine Marley to lead her own game – as well as some Monty Python influences thrown in for good measure.
But before I get to all that, let’s begin at the beginning – when Devolver Digital’s plucky co-founder Nigel Lowrie approached Gilbert about potentially making a new Monkey Island game.
“He came to me and said, ‘Hey, I know someone from Disney. If you’re interested in doing another game, we might be able to get the licence’,” Gilbert recalled, admitting it was something he had been wanting to do for a while.