User blog comment:N7EagleEye/New Mass Effect 4 Details/@comment-2127131-20121019130549

I think you are just assuming the worst, at the moment there is very little information on Mass Effect 4, and just because the new protagonist is not a solider doesn't mean they will be a boring character, it just means that they aren't a solider.

And of course ME4 won't have Shepard reprising his role, as Mass Effect 3 was the end of Shepard's story, as Bioware stated many times through out pre-release.