Dominic Armato was "floored" when he heard that a new game that he was approached for was a new Monkey Island game that had been developed in total secret, but he immediately agreed to reprise his role as Guybrush Threepwood. Alexandra Boyd and Denny Delk also agreed to return as Elaine and Murray respectively. Earl Boen was asked to reprise his role of LeChuck but he declined due to his retirement, and gave his blessing for the role to be recast with Jess Harnell.
The first Monkey Island game since Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991) that is written and created by Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman. The last time they had any active involvement in the series was with Tales of Monkey Island (2010), for which Gilbert participated in the brainstorming process (for which he was credited as "Visiting Professor of Monkeyology") and Grossman worked on the design team.
Although this game is the sixth installment in the Monkey Island series, it is a direct continuation of the second game,Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991). The reason is that Ron Gilbert, who created the first two games The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991), had always planned a trilogy of games, but left the company before he could create the third. The series was then continued with The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), Escape from Monkey Island (2000) and Tales of Monkey Island (2010), made by other people with their own ideas, even though Gilbert has always been quoted as saying that he still planned to complete his original trilogy if he ever got the chance. Although he appreciated and liked a lot from the games he wasn't involved in, he found that some of them had "veered a little bit into the silly territory", so he wanted to return to "a good solid pirate adventure [involving] sailing the seas and visiting islands". However, his game does not completely ignore Curse, Escape and Tales, and acknowledges their events in certain ways.
Creator Ron Gilbert always stated that he wanted to make a new game in the series as soon as he could buy back the IP rights to the franchise (which had gone to Disney in the wake of their acquisition of LucasArts in 2012). Production finally got underway when a friend brought him into contact with John Drake, who was in charge of licensing at Disney and was already planning to suggest making a new game in the series. Gilbert approached co-creator Dave Grossman for help, and after assurances from Disney that they would have full creative freedom, they worked together on the project for over two years in total secret; nobody who wasn't involved, not even their family or friends, knew about the game, which they called 'the Manhattan Project of games'.
This game was released on September 19, 2022 to coincide with the International Talk Like a Pirate Day.