The greatest ponytail in cinematic history is set to return. Netflix has announced, in a new video teaser for Cobra Kai season 4, that Thomas Ian Griffith will return to the role of really, really evil karate master / oil tycoon Terry Silver. The return was heavily teased in the third season of the show, which is a continuation of the ’80s Karate Kid films.
The ponytail might be a bit more gray, but the evilness is clearly still strong with Terry Silver in Cobra Kai season 4. There aren’t details on this season’s plot yet, but it was hinted that John Kreese had called Silver at the end of the third season to help him continue his takeover of junior karate in the Valley. It isn’t clear what Silver has been up to since his humiliating defeat at the All Valley Karate Tournament in which he brought in a ringer to basically cripple Danny LaRusso for life, (The films got weird.) but we can probably assume he’s still rich. He’ll be going up against LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence in the fourth season as the two have joined their dojos together to fight against the evil Cobra Kai dojo.
“Since the beginning of the series, we’ve been carefully orchestrating the right moment to unleash Cobra Kai dojo co-founder Terry Silver back into the universe,” said Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg (Executive Producers / Writers). “That moment is now. We can’t wait for the whole world to experience Thomas Ian Griffith’s majestic return to the franchise.”
Thomas Ian Griffith’s performance in The Karate Kid Part III is easily the best thing about the film. He seems to be the only person in the movie who realizes how ridiculously dumb it is and takes the role all the way to 11. That should play perfectly into Cobra Kai, which fantastically strikes a balance between tongue-in-cheek drama and actual compelling storylines. The show, which originally aired on YouTube Red and now resides on Netflix, is one of the best reboots going, and much like the original trilogy of films, it seems to be spiraling out of control (but in a good way).
Cobra Kai season 4 doesn’t have a release date yet on Netflix, but Terry Silver and Thomas Ian Griffith will be there for it.
