A divisive website that predicted 17 celebrity deaths in 2017 has made some worrying predictions for 2018

While 2017 wasn't exactly an easy year for many of us to make it through, 2016 had its own infamy for one terrible reason. The amount of celebrity deaths that year were astounding, with artists who had changed the lives of millions across the world being taken from us too soon. We lost the likes of David Bowie, Prince, Mohamed Ali, Alan Rickman, George Michael and Carrie Fisher. It's never easy to hear news like this, especially when it comes as a shock, given the young ages of some of the departed. Except, apparently, one website predicted 12 of these celebrity deaths in advance. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BdMw5kJFjHr/?taken-by=hamillhimself]] The website is called The DeathList and has been around since 1987. The site guesses which celebrities, world leaders and other public figures will pass away in the coming year, and it seems to be getting higher numbers each year. In 2017 it managed to guess 17 correctly, predicting the deaths of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, British TV legend Bruce Forsyth, actress Liz Dawn, Ian Brady and boxer Jake LaMotta. Now they've released their list for 2018, which has some worried for their favourite celebrities. The only real rules for nomination is that the chosen nominees must be famous enough that their death is expected to be reported by the UK media, and that they limit themselves to allowing 25 candidates to reappear from the previous year's list. Now that the new year has arrived, their 2018 list is here, giving us a dark look into a possible future. According to The DeathList, which is 50 people long, we will likely see the deaths of Sean Connery, The Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood, footballer Paul Gascoigne, Olivia Newton-John, Dick Van Dyke, Prince Philip and Professor Steven Hawking, just to name a few. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbtxqh6HHqE/?tagged=princephilip]] Among the politicians they expect won't be with us for long, they have listed Bob Dole, Henry Kissinger, and former presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush Sr. Above the list, the website states that: "Below you will find a list of 50 celebrities which our expert committee has selected with the expectation they will die during 2018" "In 2017, years of promise were realised when the list smashed the previous record, chalking up an astonishing 17 successes. Does this suggest there will now be some lean years ahead for DeathList? Or has the DeathList forum become such a powerful resource now that we could see the record surpassed again in 2018?" You can see how this has been seen in poor taste by many, as turning the lives of strangers into a game of odds is disrespectful to say the least. It seems like the whole thing is in jest from the website's description of Prince Philip being "casual racist", they do seem to take their success ratio pretty seriously. Even if we may ourselves expect some to leave us soon, making a list out of it seems a little strange, especially when you're bragging about the 'successes' of the previous year.