Naomi Watts Says She Likely Won't Be In The 'Eastern Promises' Sequel

We imagined this was the case when a sequel was announced and her name was missing but, nevertheless, Naomi Watts has now confirmed her non-involvement in David Cronenberg planned follow up to 2007’s “Eastern Promises,” the London-set story exploring the Russian mob.

The sequel is set to reunite director David Cronenberg with at least two of his stars in Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel, who’ll reprise their roles as Nikolai and Kirill, and already has a completed script by screenwriter Steve Knight. No mention, however, had been made of the original’s protagonist, Anna, the midwife whose discovery of a diary leads her straight into the cross-hairs of the Russian mob.

So has the actress heard anything about her character’s return? “I don’t think I’m in it,” Watts told MTV. “Nobody called, so I guess they recast or maybe created a new role for a more attractive, younger girl.” Details about the script have been kept a secret but, considering the shocking reveal at the end of the first film, we presume it’ll build on that particular plot point — something that would possibly neglect Watt’s character.

Focus Features is backing the project and had hoped for things to get underway by next winter though co-star Cassel recently noted that Cronenberg plans to shoot a film before then, possibly his adaptation of Don DeLillo’s “Cosmopolis” starring Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard.

In the mean time, Cronenberg’s story of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud — the forefathers of psychoanalysis — starring Mortensen, Cassel, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley, “The Dangerous Method,” finished shooting earlier this year and looks primed for a Cannes premiere next year.