Why Phil Robertson Didn’t Film ‘Duck Dynasty: The Revival’ Before His Death

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Duck Dynasty alum Phil Robertson died on Sunday, May 25, just a week before the scheduled premiere of Duck Dynasty: The Revival on Sunday, June 1.

“We celebrate today that our father, husband, and grandfather, Phil Robertson, is now with the Lord,” his family members said, in part, on social media that day.

But fans won’t see Phil in any posthumous appearances in the new A&E series. He wasn’t part of the revival, according to Variety, and the reasons may be myriad…

Phil had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease before his death.

Phil did not participate in the Duck Dynasty revival because of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, according to the Shreveport Times. His sons Jase and Al Robertson revealed that diagnosis on the family’s Unashamed podcast in December 2024, adding that Phil also had “some sort of blood disease that’s causing all kinds of problems.”

Then, this April, Jase said on the podcast that his father’s condition was getting worse. “Tell you the truth, it hasn’t been good,” he said. “I’m just giving the blunt truth. I’ll say, ‘Not good.’”

He was also embroiled in controversy during the original Duck Dynasty’s run.

Even if Phil hadn’t been dealing with health issues, it’s unclear whether A&E would have welcomed him back on screen. The cable network temporarily suspended him from the original Duck Dynasty in 2013 after Phil made homophobic and racially insensitive comments in a GQ interview.

When GQ asked Phil what was sinful, Phil said, “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men. … Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers — they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

In another part of the interview, he suggested that Black people were happier in the Jim Crow era, saying, “I never heard one of them, one Black person, say, I tell you what: These doggone white people—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

Amid pressure from fans, A&E reinstated Phil as a Duck Dynasty cast member after a nine-day suspension. Phil returned to anti-gay rhetoric in 2014, telling a church congregation that his critics “railed against me for giving them the truth about their sins,” per Entertainment Weekly. At a prayer breakfast the following year, Phil shared a scenario involving the rape and murder of atheists, as EW reported at the time.

Through his TV appearances and businesses, Phil was reportedly a multi-millionaire.

The website Celebrity Net Worth estimates the Duck Dynasty star had a net worth of $10 million at the time of his death after building the A&E franchise’s titular empire.

Phil was born in rural Louisiana in 1946 and attended Louisiana Tech University on a football scholarship, according to his New York Times obituary. He got a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s in education, and he worked as a teacher in Louisiana schools for several years.

Then, in 1972, Phil created a duck call that would be the basis of his Duck Commander, a Robertson family business that was the inspiration for Duck Dynasty. The original A&E show ran for 11 seasons from 2012 to 2017 and became the most-watched nonfiction cable series in history.

Now his family members will continue on with Duck Dynasty: The Revival. The show “reunited audiences with the Robertson family as they balance life, family, and the future of their Louisiana-based business,” A&E says. “The series will feature Willie and Korie Robertson alongside beloved family members Miss Kay, Uncle Si, and the next generation of Robertsons.”

Duck Dynasty: The Revival, Sunday, June 1, 9/8c, A&E