Season 4 of the Netflix series Cobra Kai premieres on New Year’s Eve, and fans are excited to see the return of Terry Silver. Cobra Kai is a sequel series to The Karate Kid franchise, and Silver was the main antagonist in The Karate Kid Part III. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Thomas Ian Griffith who plays Silver, and he opened up about returning to a role he hasn’t played in over 30 years.
“Well, it clicked a lot of boxes for me,” Griffith told PopCulture. “First of all, just going back to acting, I worked as a writer for so long, to just go back and see this character full circle has been, again, very fulfilling. And Karate Kid III, this character was the first character I ever did. John Avildsen took a chance on an unknown New York actor, and then to create this over-the-top archetypal villain in that movie, and to be able to address, well, what has he been up to for the last 30 years? Going back into that. So that was just a really fun journey for me, to just throw myself in. And knowing that I’m surrounded by these guys who have such a specific world and vision for this guy and a whole entire backstory mapped out for him, it was just like, wow, this is a gift.”
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Silver is brought in by John Kreese (Martin Kove) to help teach the Cobra Kai students as they get ready for the All Valley Karate Tournament. The dojo is going up against Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fan led by Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). Griffith talked about how much fun he had working with the younger stars in the show such as Peyton List and Tanner Buchanan.
“They all have their own special spark,” Griffith said. “And it’s funny, we see that type of energy and it plays into the roles we’re playing as these mentors and teachers. That we take them under our wings or we twist their lives up in different ways. And it’s like yeah, that’s what the older generation are there for. And these kids have been just, they’ve gotten so lucky. They got such a great cast and they’re just so much fun to watch.”
With Cobra Kai being popular, there has been speculation about what’s going to happen in Season 4. But what will fans get from Terry in the new season? Griffith said: “I think it’s going to be really satisfying, to say if you’re a fan, or love them or hate them, it’ll be satisfying, in this season for you to experience it.”
