The Monkey Island game series has been popular since The Secret of Monkey Island dropped in 1990. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride from Disneyland and Tim Power’s supernatural fantasy novel On Stranger Tides inspired the games. The games follow Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood as he goes on adventures and tries to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean. During his many adventures on Monkey Island, he often ruins the evil plans of the undead pirate LeChuck and tries to win the heart of Governor Elaine Marley. In 2022, fans were gifted with the fifth instalment of the beloved game series, 12 years after a special edition release of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Missing the beloved characters and wishing to see them discovering the secrets of Monkey Island on the big screen Kersten Schäfer used AI to see what a live-action Monkey Island movie would look like.
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AI’s Live-Action Monkey Island
The images started with a cover poster for the imagined film, with Guybrush in the foreground and a ship and pirate town in the background.
There are many images of Guybrush Threepwood, and they perfectly capture the essence of the character. He’s sporting his iconic blonde hair, and the AI used Martin Freeman to bring the hapless pirate to life. A third image shows him looking at a ship from inside a cave.
Several images in the bunch set the tone of the pictures. We see different shots of pirate ships, one at the edge of an island during what looks like early morning and another in a cove as it waits for its crew to return. There’s also a photo of a monkey just hanging out in what looks like it could be a long-abandoned town.
Finally, there are a couple of photos of LeChuck. Two images are of him before he died, one a close-up of his face and the other showing him as he explores the caves of Monkey Island. The final image shows him as the undead pirate many fans of Monkey Island remember defeating over and over on their many adventures.
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Fan Response
While one or two commenters mentioned that Pirates of the Caribbean was already a live-action movie of the game, many who saw the images immediately fell in love with the idea of a film directly based on the game series. However, while Pirates of the Caribbean gave us a taste of what a Monkey Island film could look like, it’s not the same. Instead, fans want to see Guybrush struggling on his adventures.
A few commented that they could “hear these pictures”, while others wanted to know, “Is it wrong I immediately started humming the theme music out loud?” This clearly indicates how influential this game series is. Fans are hearing the theme music just by staring at the pictures.
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TL;DR
- A Monkey Island fan used AI to see what a live-action film based on the game series would look like.
- The images focused on Guybrush Threepwood, LeChuck and the settings of Monkey Island.
- Fans loved the idea of a live-action film, with some already hearing the game’s main theme.