It's possible with some straightforward jquery (see below). You'll also need to override the default lightbox that WooCommerce includes for the gallery.
I believe that it's possible to disable it from the admin under WC -> Settings -> Products -> Display. But you can also remove the styles and scripts directly.
I haven't tested this code on a fresh install of WooCommerce--this is some modified code from a site with a heavily customized product gallery that includes video support.
You'll need to include this in your theme's functons.php file, etc. etc.
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'wc_remove_lightboxes', 99 );
/**
* Remove WooCommerce default prettyphoto lightbox
*/
function wc_remove_lightboxes() {
// Styles
wp_dequeue_style( 'woocommerce_prettyPhoto_css' );
// Scripts
wp_dequeue_script( 'prettyPhoto' );
wp_dequeue_script( 'prettyPhoto-init' );
wp_dequeue_script( 'fancybox' );
wp_dequeue_script( 'enable-lightbox' );
}
/* Customize Product Gallery */
/**
* Click on thumbnail to view image for single product page gallery. Includes
* responsive image support using 'srcset' attribute introduced in WP 4.4
* @link https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/11/10/responsive-images-in-wordpress-4-4/
*/
add_action( 'wp_footer', 'wc_gallery_override' );
function wc_gallery_override()
{
// Only include if we're on a single product page.
if (is_product()) {
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
( function( $ ) {
// Override default behavior
$('.woocommerce-main-image').on('click', function( event ) {
event.preventDefault();
});
// Find the individual thumbnail images
var thumblink = $( '.thumbnails .zoom' );
// Add our active class to the first thumb which will already be displayed
//on page load.
thumblink.first().addClass('active');
thumblink.on( 'click', function( event ) {
// Override default behavior on click.
event.preventDefault();
// We'll generate all our attributes for the new main
// image from the thumbnail.
var thumb = $(this).find('img');
// The new main image url is formed from the thumbnail src by removing
// the dimensions appended to the file name.
var photo_fullsize = thumb.attr('src').replace('-300x300','');
// srcset attributes are associated with thumbnail img. We'll need to also change them.
var photo_srcset = thumb.attr('srcset');
// Retrieve alt attribute for use in main image.
var alt = thumb.attr('alt');
// If the selected thumb already has the .active class do nothing.
if ($(this).hasClass('active')) {
return false;
} else {
// Remove .active class from previously selected thumb.
thumblink.removeClass('active');
// Add .active class to new thumb.
$(this).addClass('active');
// Fadeout main image and replace various attributes with those defined above. Once the image is loaded we'll make it visible.
$('.woocommerce-main-image img').css( 'opacity', '0' ).attr('src', photo_fullsize).attr('srcset', photo_srcset).attr('alt', alt).load(function() {
$(this).animate({ opacity: 1 });
});
return false;
}
});
} )( jQuery );
</script>
<?php
}
}