Again, literally none of this supports what you said. Obviously they:
- considered an initial recast
- then pivoted to a new character
But, Dries has said the reason they did it this way is so that viewers wouldn't have to pretend Wallis Day was Ruby Rose -- they waited so as not to address the elephant in the room as they said. And of course they didn't call Wallis till January, network TV shows aren't going to book actors that far in advance of filming.
Anyways, back to Steph:
As I said before the ep aired, they were not tattoos, if people are wondering. And all in all it felt like a pretty great adaptation. Hair color really isn't a huge deal. Hope we see more of her. Yall should give it a try.