Fender is a great brand and Epiphone have a pretty solid track record too.
My recommendation is to set yourself a budget and to get the best guitar you can within that budget. If you get the player series now you probably won’t have to upgrade ever, it’ll just be a matter of adding new things to the collection.
A good exercise is to write out your top 10 favourite guitarists, then explore what gear they use, this will give you a good indication of the kind of sound you like and what guitars are going to best help you capture it.