Texts with a friend on the subject of AA5:
Friend: AA5 WITH PHOENIX AS THE MC
Me: (after a while) ...Is it bad that I'm actually pretty upset about this?
Friend: Ahaha, are you now?
Me: Yeah. You can't just pretend that Apollo Justice doesn't exist.
Friend: I don't think they will be. I doubt they're just gonna do away with Apollo and co. Unless it's some sort of prequel...which wouldn't make any sense at all, so.
Me: But it's not just that - you can't just wash away everything Phoenix did in AA4 either, all the disillusionment and legally-questionable moral debacles. I'm not sure Phoenix can work as the protagonist any more. (Unless it's a prequel, yeah.)
Me: And considering how Capcom treats Apollo - not to mention how APOLLO'S OWN GAME TREATS HIM, what with Phoenix's presence completely upstaging him - I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Capcom completely wiped AA4 from continuity.
Friend: DAMMIT (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻