I hope so too. It would be much more interesting if the characters were conscious they were looking for a secret.
I was assuming they wouldn’t. Now I’m excited 
Even better if they get to the island with no idea what is the nature of the secret, but only that it’s on the island. Would be nice…
If I’m not mistaken, you can also ask “What’s the secret of Monkey Island?” to LeChuck in the final showdown in MI2, but he gives an evasive reply.
Or maybe my memory is way off. I still haven’t gotten to the final showdown with my playthrough.
Yes, you can do that when he’s torturing you then asking you if you have any questions, during part 3. If you pick “What’s the Secret of Monkey Island?”, he simply answers: “I’m growing tired of your stupid questions.” Then, he leaves.
I always thought it was a very funny line. 
EDIT: Found it! He actually has a much more enigmatic answer.
Oh, I missed that. We passed the acid scene but didn’t get to that question.
Anyway, great answer. All will be revealed in a moment - just a 30 year long moment.
In Italian, the World Series question is “who won the 1982 World Cup?”, to which the answer is “Italy”
Dalixam: Hi Ron, glad to meet you
Ron-G: Yes, if you really look at what’s going on, you might be able to come close.
Wow… interesting!
Going back to whether characters will mention the secret in this game… in one of the screenshots we actually see Monkey Island. Why would Guybrush go back there, if not to find the secret? He’s already been there once. Would he go back there to find something else than the secret? Unlikely! So there’s hope.
And what about the possibility that Elaine will accompany him throughout the journey? Could the mood be similar to Indy4 with Sophia in Crete?
He always says that eventually, no matter what question you pick. There are a total of 11 possible questions with answers in the script, from which a random subset is picked for your dialog options.
This particular one is:
Guybrush: “What is the secret of Monkey Island?”
LeChuck: “All will be revealed in a few moments.”
Another (non revealing) hint is at the hint line in the jungle:
Guybrush: “What IS the secret of Monkey Island?”
Chester: “I’m fed up with stupid questions like that. It’s a surprise, OK?”
To me, all seems to point towards “it’s kids playing”. But why would that be the secret of Monkey Island in itself? I mean, characters sailed to that island to find the secret. It’s not a secret of the world, but the island itself.
Now… maybe Monkey Island is a ride. One of those rides that they, as kids, can’t go to because they’re too short.
In the Bones Song cutscene, Guybrush sees his parents and says “I thought you abandoned me”, and the parents reply something along the lines of “we were worried and looking for you”. This looks a lot like an exchange between a kid lost in public and its parents.
The E ticket, the ending… LeChuck saying to Guybrush that “in your case, babies come from the orphanage” which to me sounds like a mean big brother telling the younger sibling “you’ve been adopted”…
THIS could be the secret!
@Frenzie Did you play Miles Edgeworth Investigation 2? Does this story reminds you of something?
I did, but I don’t recall it very well. Edgeworth was never formally adopted, was he?
I think the secret has something to do with the monkeys…
It’s called Monkey Island, there’s a bunch of monkeys there, they must be up to something.
Maybe there’s some radioactive substance that’s causing the monkeys to have three heads.
That’s the secret. A radioactive meteorite buried in Monkey Island. Guybrush picks it up, and he pops up two more heads . The end.
Not him, but there were 2 boys that… and then… orphanage… at the end… !!!
(Maybe we should move to the appropriate topic)
Ron Gilbert interview at Adventure Corner (01.01.12):
So here we go: What is the secret of Monkey Island?
Ron Gilbert: (laughs) Someday I’m going to have to write a blog entry and tell everybody about what it is. But there really is a secret. And LeChuck being Guybrush’s brother is not it. Actually, when I started making ‘Monkey Island’ I did have this whole weird plan about the entire storyline and there really was a secret.
This game is great, by the way, probable my favorite Ace Attorney game.
But I digress, sorry…
The part of that interview that makes me a bit hopeful is the following one:
And did you plan to explore that more?
Ron Gilbert: Yeah, in the third game I would have tried to wrap that up. The third game would have revealed that secret.
Even if many fans didn’t perceive any loose end, I’ve waited thirty years for that “wrapping that up”.
I considered Zak McKracken to be the sequel to Maniac Mansion when it was released.
(way before Day of the Tentacle, which still to this day I don’t really consider as Maniac Mansion 2 for that reason)
Actually my oldest Star Wars movie memory is from Empire… and none of those movies made a lot of sense to me anyway. Still enjoyed them.
After all, there is a time machine on Monkey Island.
According to the original design document anyway.
And porcelain
The Surprise of Monkey Island.
Actually that was April 1st/4th 2022.
Combining that with the time machine: Guybrush is old and discovered the secret… but forgot what it was, as he is old. Guybrush is the old man in the shopkeeper window!
In the first two games, both the secret of Monkey Island and Big Whoop appears to be legends shrouded by the mists of mystery. But every legend has a basis of truth.
The secret itself might simply have to do with the fact that Monkey Island seems to be reachable only though a voodoo incantation and that under the island there is a place that, as Ron Gilbert wrote 32 years ago, «could only be described as hell». Maybe that’s why Return to Monkey Island takes Guybrush for another ride into that «hellish place filled with the wailing of tortured souls trapped forever in the rock, where the walls bleed and the air is thick with the rancid smell of pure evil».
Is Big Whoop directly linked to the secret of Monkey Island (and/or to the hell under Monkey Island)? Who knows. However, the idea of a treasure that isn’t just a treasure since «it contains the secret to another world» appears to originate from Mutiny on Monkey Island, an early version of The Secret of Monkey Island. In Mutiny the object of the quest was not the secret but the treasure of Monkey Island. It turns out that the treasure doesn’t exist and that the treasure map is a fake; however, on Monkey Island there is «a bizarre glowing crack which sits exactly where the map says the treasure should be». In the design document of Mutiny on Monkey Island Ron Gilbert describes the crack with these words (some of which resemble the words pronounced by the Voodoo Lady in the first game):
«Deep in a cave near the center of Monkey Island is a crevice that glows red. Anyone peering in would feel the unmistakable rush of evil billowing upward. It is a heat so intense that it overcomes your mind, drawing you deep into things better left unseen – undone. That crack decends to a place at the center of the earth, the name of which changes from religion to religion, from faith to faith. Most pirates call it Hell».
Let’s continue on this dedicated thread!
Maybe the secret is that the giant monkey head is actually a regular size monkey head and everything else is tiny.
