BioWare Talks Next Mass Effect Protagonist and Ideas

Talking to VG247 at a recent EA showcase, BioWare Montreal producer Fabrice Condominas has reiterated BioWare's desire to not move forward with Commander Shepard's story, and hinted at the developer's desire to explore different facets of the universe for the next Mass Effect titles. Here's the relevant quote:
(This is really our starting point. Now the Mass Effect universe is vast, and very, very rich. So at this point in time, we don't even know what kind of time frame we're going to be in. All we're doing is more gathering ideas from the teams, gathering feedback to see several things.)

(So first, we don't want to make '˜Shepard 2'², or Mass Effect 4 with like, '˜oh there's no more Shepard but you're a soldier in the universe'. So this will be a very, very different context for sure, and nothing has been decided on the rest.)