At Long Last, We Know Arnold's Full Name On "Hey Arnold"

Eugene is gay, Pigeon Man lives, and Helga grew up to be president.

The new Hey Arnold two-part animated movie looks, from what we've seen so far, absolutely amazing.

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Our childhood faves have gotten minor makeovers, are a year older, and are all going to travel to San Lorenzo — where Arnold's parents disappeared so many years ago.

Craig Bartlett, the show's executive producer and original creator, said at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend that the reboot will "answer every fan question [it] possibly [can]."

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But tbh, we had a lot of questions about the original series and couldn't wait for the reboot to come out in 2017. So we sat down with Bartlett at Comic-Con and demanded answers. JK, we asked very nicely. Here's everything we learned.

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We, AT LONG LAST, have confirmed Arnold's full name: Arnold Phillip Shortman.

Keely Flaherty / BuzzFeed

"Yes, [his last name is Shortman]. That one has just become a fact, but we still are going to do a joke where he reveals his last name in The Jungle Movie — just to confirm it. [And] I think [Arnold's middle name] should be Phillip. Arnold P. Shortman, after Phil, his grandpa."

Yes, Mr. Simmons is gay. And he replaced Miss Slovak because she was "too much of a caricature."

Keely Flaherty / BuzzFeed / Nickelodeon

"We had our teacher Miss Slovak in Season 1, and Slovak was too much of a caricature. That seemed a little bit too simple — it wasn't smart enough. What if we put, instead, a great teacher who really cares about the students and is just full of passion? And then we thought, 'Well, let's make him gay, why not? It'll be fun.'"

And Eugene is also gay.

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"We always figured Eugene was kind of proto-gay. He's not gay yet, he just will be. He loves musical theater, and he's a wonderful guy."

Helga's mom, Miriam, was definitely an alcoholic.

Keely Flaherty / BuzzFeed / Nickelodeon

"We wanted to make Helga have a very, very difficult home life because we wanted our audience to love Helga — who's a mean, brittle, sarcastic bully who pushes everybody around. Beyond that, she's intelligent, creative, a very powerful character, a natural leader. I wanted to make the audience love her, and so I thought, they'll love her if her dad's a big blowhard and her mom's a secret drunk, and her older sister's perfect. I think [Helga] became the most beloved character on the show."

No, Pigeon Man did not kill himself. He flew to Paris — and he might be back for The Jungle Movie.

Keely Flaherty / BuzzFeed / Nickelodeon

"I shouldn't say, but I have plans for Pigeon Man. Let's just say, he's not dead. [There are some] bad misconceptions about that [scene], that it was a suicide scene where he jumped off the roof. He doesn't commit suicide — he hooks up all those pigeons and flies away. I always imagined that he went to Paris, because that would be a good place to take care of pigeons."

Stoop Kid did, in fact, travel the world to see all the Great Stoops.

Keely Flaherty / BuzzFeed / Nickelodeon

"Stoop Kid left the stoop — he still, as you know, at the end of the episode he chooses to stay. Once he had the power to leave the stoop, he left when he wanted to. He basically went around the world and sat on some huge stoops. Remember, Arnold showed him a bunch of stoops? He went to the Great Pyramids."

No, Grandpa Phil's head was not drawn to look like a penis on purpose.

Keely Flaherty / Nickelodeon / BuzzFeed

“The comment always on the web is ‘can’t unsee’ — which perfectly sums up what these things do. Once you see them, you can’t unsee them. I draw characters that are pretty grotesque and lumpy. That’s sort of a school of character design — like Rugrats. They’re cool, they’re fun, they’re kind of lumpy and funky. I just basically drew them because I thought they were funny. I didn’t mean to ruin childhoods."

But most importantly, we asked Bartlett to draw what Helga would look like as an adult...

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...and she is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

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"She proudly kept her monobrow. She knows it's very powerful. I'm going to give her some kind of bun. She's the first woman president."

HERE. FOR. IT.

Craig Bartlett for BuzzFeed

The Jungle Movie will premiere on Thanksgiving of 2017 — keep an eye out for Pigeon Man's return.

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