Star Wars: The Force Awakens made waves with the casting of John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, a young black man and white woman, as the lead figures in the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of 2015. Now JJ Abrams has signalled his ongoing efforts to help improve Hollywood diversity after instituting a new policy to ensure people of colour and women always make the final shortlists for openings at his production company Bad Robot.

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Abrams told the Hollywood Reporter he made the move in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, which overshadowed this year’s ceremony after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science failed to nominate a single actor of colour for the second successive year.

“We’ve been working to improve our internal hiring practices for a while, but the Oscars controversy was a wake-up call to examine our role in expanding opportunities internally at Bad Robot and externally with our content and partners,” said Abrams. “We’re working to find a rich pool of representative, kick-ass talent and give them the opportunity they deserve and we can all benefit from. It’s good for audiences and it’s good for the bottom line.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leading the way … Daisy Ridley and John Boyega in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Photograph: Allstar/Disney/Lucasfilm

Bad Robot will reportedly work with its agency partner CAA and studios Warner Bros and Paramount to ensure women and minorities are submitted for writing, directing and acting jobs for the company in direct proportion to their representation among the US population. The policy has been in place since the end of January, two weeks after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy broke following the announcement of this year’s Academy Awards nominees.

Abrams’s firm continues to be involved with the ongoing Star Wars trilogy, though the film-maker has handed directing duties to Rian Johnson on the upcoming Episode VIII, and is a key player in the Star Trek film series. Bad Robot also currently oversees the television series Person of Interest and 11.22.63, as well as the upcoming sci-fi thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane, a sequel of sorts to the Abrams-produced Cloverfield.

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Details of the production company’s quota system emerged during a period in which Hollywood appears to be scrambling to learn lessons from the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Newly announced movies with diversity at the fore include the Barack Obama biopic Barry and Dr Q, the true life tale of an illegal immigrant who became the head of brain tumour surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The latter is moving into production under Brad Pitt’s company, Plan B, and studio Disney.

Meanwhile, Mexican-Kenyan Oscar-winner and Abrams alumnus Lupita Nyong’o will headline the science fiction drama Intelligent Life for Selma director Ava DuVernay, with the acclaimed African-American film-maker also set to take charge of Disney children’s fantasy A Wrinkle in Time. Black actors are also increasingly being cast with colour-blind attitudes in mind: Britain’s Idris Elba is in talks to replace Charlie Hunnam as the lead in romantic drama The Mountain Between Us, while Creed’s Michael B Jordan is set to take the Steve McQueen/Pierce Brosnan role in a new remake of spy thriller The Thomas Crown Affair.



Movies lined up to offer diverse casts and themes for the 2017 Oscars include the Sundance slavery drama Birth of a Nation, Amma Asante’s interracial romance A United Kingdom and Mira Nair’s Uganda chess prodigy drama Queen of Katwe.