Terry Silver is terrorizing the valley in cobra kai Season 5.
More than 30 years after making his acting debut in Karate Kid Part IIIThomas Ian Griffith reprized his role as Terry Silver in the recently released cobra kai Season 5. While speaking to ComingSoon, Griffith discussed the “incredible journey” that brought him back as leader of the Cobra Kai dojo before focusing on the season finale, which the actor described as “Shakespearean.”
“Following the shocking results of the All Valley Tournament, Season 5 finds Terry Silver expanding the Cobra Kai empire and attempting to make his ‘No Mercy’ style of karate the only game in town,” reads the synopsis. “With Kreese behind bars and Johnny Lawrence putting aside karate to focus on repairing the damage he has caused, Daniel LaRusso must call on an old friend to help him.”
Tudor Leonte: You are reprising the role of Terry Silver after more than 30 years. What does it mean to you to be a part of the original trilogy that really started it all?
Thomas Ian Griffith: It’s been an incredible journey. Karate Kid Part III it was my first movie. John Avildsen took a chance on an unknown actor from New York. I thought it was going to be that. We created this archetypal exaggerated character, and in a way, it was fun. It fit right in with those villain movies and I never expected 30 years later to come back and do this in my wildest dreams. In fact, when I first heard about the show, I thought, ‘My God, this is going to be a disaster. Then I watched the first season and I choked up saying, ‘This is fantastic. Billy is great and Ralph is great. The writing is great, it’s nostalgic, funny and irreverent as hell.’ However, once again, I never thought that Terry Silver would fit into that world. I thought it was just about those guys at the OGs. Then around season 3 I started hearing rumors and getting calls saying, ‘Hey, can we use a clip of you from the karate kid?’ I was like, ‘What?’ You know? And even then, when the guys first called, I thought, ‘Mmh, they might want to bring that character back for a couple of apples, an episode or two. It’s like, it’s not my thing. But then when they released this amazing bow that they had with all these dimensions and colors, it was like, ‘Oh wait a second. This is something special. I have to jump on this. It’s just unexpected, and I’m so proud to be a part of it.
Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment. Why do you think Daniel seems so obsessed with stopping the Cobra Kai guys and Terry Silver in particular?
griffith: I think he carries a lot of baggage, and I had that influence on him when he was young, and I think when you have those experiences, it’s hard to let them go. He is also honoring his tradition. It’s a great story because Miyagi-Do and everything else means a lot to him. On the other hand, so does Cobra Kai [to me], help me get through this terrible time, after Vietnam and all this. So it’s like, there are two guys who are so passionate about what they do, and it’s just an allowable quality. Will they be able to get together? Now, there’s respect there, but still, just because the philosophy is… it’s too soft to say soft and hard, but if we put it like that, it’s like they can’t coexist. He’s fighting for what he believes in, as is Terry Silver, which sets up the big showdown we have at the end. You all saw what happened, which I can’t believe happened. [Laughs] No, obviously, it was a grand finale. It was an epic Shakespearean ending.