sporeian wrote...
Shepard has been an integral part of the universe. It'd be like, removing Master Chief from Halo or removing The Fellowship from LotR.
Shepard's never really been integral after ME1, and Shepard was only integral to ME1 because of the Beacon.
In ME2, nearly the entire crew joins up for reasons and motivations unrelated to Shepard. Of a 12-man team and ship crew, only Tali and possibly Garrus join up for Shepard's sake. Jacob Taylor could have repeated role as a player character and the game would have worked just as well.
In ME3, Shepard is little more than a mix between a gopher and a representative for Hackett. That's a role more or less any Alliance soldier of exceptional caliber could do.
Given how easily Shepard could have been replaced in his/her own trilogy, continuing forward with other games would be easy.