'Cobra Kai' finale: Co-creators reveal how they decided on shocking Terry Silver twist, Sekai Taikai winner

Yahoo

16-02-2025

Co-creators of the famed Netflix Cobra Kai series, Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg, brought us six seasons of thrills, surprises and a lot of karate. From developing the relationship between Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence), to the interesting dynamics of the next generations of karate stars, the series thoroughly expanded the world established in the Karate Kid movies.
But one of the most exciting developments in the final episodes of Cobra Kai was seeing the surprising twist with infamous villain Terry Silver, played by Thomas Ian Griffith. One of the fiercest villains in the Karate Kid universe, Cobra Kai took the character to a really interesting place, adding a more humanizing element to Silver's story.
Additionally, Hurwitz, Heald and Schlossberg had us at the edge of our seats as they finally revealed who wins the Sekai Taikai competition. The show's co-creators spoke to Yahoo Canada about when they decided who would win the international tournament, in addition to talking about how they decided to expand the role of Silver throughout the series.
In the beginning We were enemies And through the years, you want to finish this?
We've had our battles.
Bring it on.
All of us, come on.
Isn't a tournament There are no rules.
But that's only made us stronger.
I guess it was inevitable.
We'd end up on the same side.
I'd love to know at what point did you know how things were going to end in the Seai Taikai and who the winners were going to be without spoiling exactly who they are and what happens.
You know, it was something that we were plotting out, uh, you know, in the writer's room.
I think before the writer's room we knew the final few uh moves that we were making, uh, so, you know.
The three of us start off, uh, before each season and we sort of plan, uh, the character arcs for every character.
And then once we're in the writer's room, some things can change, and we, uh, you know, uh, work with our amazing team to figure out a lot of the twists and turns.
Uh, this was something that we knew where we were headed.
Um, it's wrapping up, a story that's, you know, 65 episodes long, so you're thinking about the long game and Uh, you know, where you started and where you wanted to finish with these characters, and some of it's a 40 year journey, you know, one of the things that we, we're very proud of in the final episodes of the show is taking this, you know, Johnny Lawrence Daniel Russo relationship that we fell in love with in 1984, this rivalry and hopefully bring it to a satisfying conclusion for fans.
I think that your handling of Terry Silver as a character in this series has been So exceptional from where we saw the character introduced, um, and just the kind of dynamics and the ups and the downs, particularly in this season.
Um, what's been particularly compelling about kind of really bringing that character into the fold in the way that you were able to in the series?
Terry Silver was always sitting out there as this major character on the chessboard to play, and the moment you start playing with that character, it's, you know, the the the things start burning and and you're You're in a new zone.
Like we did 3 seasons of a story that ends with Johnny and Daniel bowing to each other, you know, in Mr. Miyagi's backyard, and it felt like that was part one.
And then here comes Crease calling Terry Silver, and in comes the big bad wolf, you know, from the cold.
And we had to own up for, you know, what we watched in the Karate Kid Part 3 for, you know, what Robert Mark Kaman did there at the time was big.
And, uh, it was bold and it was.
He was villainous in a way that, you know, we really hadn't experienced even from Crease before.
And the fun was in humanizing that character and having us re-encounter this character who had seemingly, um, gotten therapy and, and confronted his demons and had figured out that, you know, he was living too fast and too loose in the 80s, um, and life got a little bit away from him, and he can't even believe the way that he behaved.
And by grounding that character and bringing him back down to earth, it enabled us to then Launch him to the moon again and let him, you know, slowly build to becoming, uh, the full monster that he is by the time you re-encounter him, uh, in season 6.
And a character like that is a gift, um, for writers because, uh, and, and an actor like that too, because Thomas is able to, you know, to do anything we throw at him from the martial arts to the most dramatic readings to the most, uh, to grounding the most villainous, uh, dialogue, um, that we can possibly plan.
So it was nothing but fun.