Terry Silver is terrorizing the valley in Cobra Kai Season 5.
More than 30 years after making his actorial debut in The Karate Kid Part III, Thomas Ian Griffith reprised his role as Terry Silver in the recently released Cobra Kai Season 5. While talking with ComingSoon, Griffith opened up about the “incredible journey” that brought him back as the Cobra Kai dojo leader before focusing on the season’s 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 trying to make his “No Mercy” style of karate the only game in town,” reads the synopsis. “With Kreese behind bars and Johnny Lawrence setting karate aside to focus on repairing the damage he’s caused, Daniel LaRusso must call on an old friend for help.”
Tudor Leonte: You’re reprising the role of Terry Silver after more than 30 years. What does it mean for you to be part of the original trilogy that really sparked it all?
Thomas Ian Griffith: It’s been an incredible journey. The Karate Kid Part III was my first film. John Avildsen took a chance on an unknown New York actor. I thought that was gonna be it. We created this archetypal over-the-top character, and it was funny in a way. It fit the time when of those movies for villains and never expected 30 years later to come back and be doing this, not in my wildest dreams. In fact, when I first heard about the show, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is gonna be a disaster.’ Then I watched the first season, and I binge it going, ‘This is fantastic. Billy’s great and Ralph is great. The writing’s great, it’s nostalgic and funny and irreverent as hell.’ Again though, I never thought Terry Silver would fit into that world. I thought it was about just those guys at the OGs. Then, around Season 3, I started to hear rumors and I got calls and say, ‘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’re gonna wanna 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 pitched this incredible arc that they had with all these dimensions and colors, it was like, ‘Oh, wait a second. This is something special. I gotta jump at this.’ It’s just unexpected, and I’m just so proud to be a part of it.
Let’s play the devil’s advocate for a moment. Why do you think Daniel seems so obsessed with stopping Cobra Kai guys and Terry Silver in particular?
Griffith: I think he carries a lot of baggage, and I had that influence on him young, and I think when you have those experiences, they’re hard to let go of. He is also honoring his tradition. It’s a great story because Miyagi-Do and everything means so much to him. On the flip side, so does Cobra Kai [to me], help me get through this terrible time, post-Vietnam and all this stuff. So it’s like, there’s two men that are so passionate about what they do, and it’s just an admissible quality. Will they be able to get together? Now, there’s respect there, but still, they just because the philosophy is… it’s too gentle to say the soft and the hard, but if we just put it like that, it’s like they can’t coexist. He’s fighting for what he believes as is Terry Silver, which sets up the great showdown that we have at the end. You all saw what happened, which I can’t believe that happened. [Laughs] No, obviously, it was a great ending. It was an epic Shakespearean ending.
