Ron Gilbert, the series' creator, confirmed the news on his blog earlier this week. Nonetheless, it was published on April 1st. The last game on the main of a ship, the infamous Escape from the ship, was released two years ago, and the original equestrian ship and its sequel were released three years later. Return to Monkey Island has been in development for two years, and it turns out it's quite close.

The new game is being published by Devolver Digital in conjunction with Lucasfilm Games as a follow-up to the first two games, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. It also features LucasArts composers Michael Land, Michael McConnell, Clint Bajakian, and original co-writer Dave Grossman. Tim Schafer, who runs Microsoft's Double Fine, does not return as a co-creator. 

A teaser trailer appears to have been released this afternoon. The trailer has a talking skull, who we can only assume is Murray, and a ghost skeleton playing the violin. Guybrush Threepwood is nowhere to be found, although his presence in the game is a given.

Return to Monkey Island is being published by Devolver Digital, and aside from the announcement Tweet on the company's official account, we know that it starts up where Monkey Island two: LeChuck's Revenge was left unfinished. We were dismayed to learn that this is not the case with the Curse of Monkey, but rather with the salty. After all, it's a new island, and it's a new, lovely island.

We don't know much about the game beyond, but we do have a 2013 blog post from Gilbert outlining his plans for a new game in the series. He stated at the time that he wanted it to be "a throwback game that harkens back to Monkey Island 1 and 2," and that he would expressly ignore the events of the series after the second – and given that this game follows LeChuck's Revenge, it appears he may have gotten his goal.

Other ideas he had at the time included creating "a hardcore adventure game" with no tutorials, hint systems, "pansy-assed puzzles or appealing to the mass-market or modernizing".Return to Monkey Island is one of several projects from Disney's Lucasfilm Games brand that appear to be returning to iconic brands, such as Indiana Jones, various new Star Wars projects, and more. Monkey Island has already made an appearance in Sea of Thieves' Pirates of the Caribbean update, where it received an expanded Easter Egg.

Last year,  Lucasfilm Games exclaimed about the initiative, and they explained that the goal was to collaborate with developers to create their ideal games using Disney IP. Given that Gilbert has expressed an interest in purchasing the property from Disney, it's possible that he saw this as the best alternative.