Cronenberg’s direction was central to the brutal effectiveness of the original Eastern Promises, so to not have him back would arguably be disappointing.
Eastern Promises 2 does not have a release date.
If the script really is as good as Knight says, then there’s reason to be excited about what Eastern Promises 2 could be, even without Cronenberg or Mortensen (who could retire from movies at any moment) on-board.
“I can say the script for the second one is much better that the first.