So, my theory is that the staff that's been let go from Naughty Dog were the main players on TLoU.

They stayed on long enough to see the game through to completion on the ps4 (as well as the expansions) and were then let go. Possibly, they were all promised way too much in bonuses from the game, or simply through merit of their history on ps3 GOTYS commanded too much earnings potential. People who have left are already moving to key positions in other companies, so you can see their leverage was  pretty solid.

So basically, the TLoU team was only employed for this one last game, making them the eponymous reference in TLoU.

Sounds just crazy enough to be true, eh?

I agree and judging by how many awards/sales/reviews they have gotten, it was an epic success

What about the Uncharted writer and the voice actor?

Or ND is making The Last of Us 2 and they don't like working on sequels and would prefer to work on something new after each game is released, so they left.

Not sure what you mean by voice actor. Nolan North does Nathan Drake. The person you are referring to is Todd Stashwick who did the voiceover on the teaser trailer of UC4, but he's a writer primarily.

He and Amy Henning both left simultaneously and went to EA, where they are both working on Star Wars. I would think they left on their own accord for comfy positions at EA.

So you think they're working on TLoU 2?

Oh ok, wasn't there talk of her being forced out? 

That was dramatics from gaming media. Naughty Dog came out and said none of that ever happened. She was offered an opportunity to work on EA's next Star Wars MMO and she took it. We still don't know what actually happened, whether there was a scandal, or some kind of other beef (probably monetary), or who knows what. But we do know she was not forced out.

I'm betting that the TLoU writer was being promoted and that upset her and she asked for more money or she was walking, saying something like "I hope your fancy writer knows how to write for Uncharted", and they decided not to pay her more so she took her buddy Todd and left.

Yeah I think they are highly likely working on TLoU 2.  I would be very surprised if they weren't.  But my theory also makes sense because I know a lot of artists don't like to work on sequels and move on after project completion unless they are really passionate about it.   I'm sure there are plenty of people that are better artists than they are that could work on TLOU universe.  Just a matter of finding them.  

It does sound like there are some internal conflicts within ND. Hopefully, it doesn't affect U4 too badly or at all. It just seems so odd that after the ginormous success of the uncharted franchise and now TLOU basically becoming a contender for GOTG, people are jumping ship.